


The Seven Pure Lights

by Stressed_Perfectionist



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angel/Demon Relationship, F/F, F/M, LGBTQ Themes, M/M, Original Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:26:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 21,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22683949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stressed_Perfectionist/pseuds/Stressed_Perfectionist
Summary: As a child you hear stories about a Princess being kidnapped, a Knight coming to save her. There's no Princess in need of saving here. Novus Lightheart is the Princess of Crystallia with the help of her friends she fights against the darkness and hopefully breaking a prophecy, a prophecy that would  mean the end of her life.





	1. The God

“She’s lost.” Two gods sit, watching over a young girl, with brown locks covering her sad eyes.  
“Of course she is. Do you know how many times her life has changed? There’s been a total of 3 Hard Resets now at least,” the younger god sighs staring down at the lost girl, the God begins to fidget, “Do you want to help her?” the young god nods.  
“Papa, let me watch her, humans aren’t that bad I want to make her happy.” The older god sighed, patting the young one’s head,   
“You will go through many resets with her, you will grow, but she will not.”  
“That’s okay! As long as I can guide her! She’s just a human.” The god shook his head laughing,  
“My dear Cybele. That is no human.” Cybele tilts her head,   
“What do you mean? She looks human. Does she have powers?” Their eyes guide back to the young girl now standing up her sad eyes replaced with determination.  
“She is the woman that will save all of us, she’ll unite the worlds, even if she’s gone off the path many times, she has you to watch her now Cybele.” The young god smiles,  
“What is her name? Does she even have one?”  
“She has a name,” Cybele crosses her arms, wanting an answer, “her name is Novus.”

The universe is hell. You can never rest, no one ever helps you. It is also so loud, always so obnoxious, how can the world be so cruel to someone trying so hard to do something so good.  
“Novus I just asked if you were okay.”  
“I am obviously not okay Liam why would you even consider asking that when I am obviously under a lot of pressure at the moment and I-” my hand slams down, Liam falls back, putting a guard up, “sorry.” For the past week, I have been stuck with loads of paperwork. Nothing like schoolwork, no. I am going to be queen soon. Queen of Crystallia, Crystallia is just a twist left from the moon and turns backwards with your eyes closed. It’s not surprising that humans don’t know about our planet, they can never seem to close their eyes when looking for us. The man next to me is Liam. He is my Soulmate, and not in a gushy way, that we were meant to be, but he has half of my soul and I have half of his. We are happy together, although, we aren’t actually together.  
“It’s unprofessional for him to be so late.” Liam sighed as I nodded my head.   
“I’m sorry I’m late.” Rave comes running and tripping slightly on the door’s bottom. I smile slightly telling him it’s okay, Liam was not as amused,  
“You’re causing Novus even more stress than she already needs, isn’t it your job to keep her safe and happy.” my chair creeks sliding on top of the floor,  
“Liam, it’s okay,” I smile once again, now standing up, handing Rave several sheets of paper, “fill all of these out for me okay?” Rave sighs, mumbling. I kiss Rave’s cheek causing his face to turn into a rose. We are not Soulmates, and that’s okay for most. Liam disagrees, but he’s learning to accept it.  
“Novus! There you are!” A voice calls to me, guiding my eyes to see Opal. She smiles brightly holding a beautiful ocean blue dress, diamonds lay embedded causing the end to glow, “I made it myself after taking your measurements. I hope it suits you well for the crowning.” Opal passes the dress onto my hands. My eyes scan the dress, every stitch, every diamond sewed in, even the little black heart in the crease where she messed up. I smile as the dress disappears, and latches onto my body. Crystillians can create a pocket dimension, in which they can put on clothing, summon weapons, anything they can think of, as long as they have seen the material, Opal makes outfits for us because it’s easier to find the source material. She is also one of my closest and most trusted friends. Her smile grows as I spin around allowing the dress to fully materialize, “It looks beautiful on you.”  
“Thank you, Opal I-”  
“Wow, I wish I could see it.” Opal and I both jump going back to reality, realizing there were others around us. Specifically Amelia.  
“Good morning Amelia.” she tilts her head, and smiles.  
“Good morning,” Amelia teeters around me touching the silk dress as she goes around, “I can feel the magic radiating from this beautiful dress,” she closes her eyes. Amelia is blind. She is not Crystillian, neither is Opal, they aren’t even the same species. Opal is a Laete, a group of half humans, half animal. They carry characteristics from both, Opal has black ears, and a cat tail. She is the rarest type of Laete. While Amelia is a Templum, they are creatures that were originally humans, but they have a crystal somewhere on the body. Amelia’s crystal broke, She lost her sight, but the magic inside the broken crystal absorbed into her skin, she can’t see, but she can see auras, “Opal did you sew magic beads into the dress?” Opal smirks and her tail curls,  
“How could I not? Novus tends to draw attention easily, Radial suggested it.” Radial is Rave’s twin brother, he is a brilliant inventor, and I unfortunately cannot visit him. Radial holds the Crown of Light, the crown that unlocks the queen's true potential, and that I will be receiving tonight if all goes well. I sigh, the dress disappears as my soft, comfortable hoodie and jeans swirl and tighten onto my body. Opal summons the dress to her hand, and walks off with Amelia next to her.   
“You’re about to be queen, but you still look like a 12 year old Novus,” Raisa pulls the hood over my head laughing, “Embrace the royalty for once, I would kill to be queen.” She twirls around, “You like my hair? I got it dyed just for this event.” Raisa is a fantic of changing her hair, makeup, mostly anything she can have control over. She is a rare Crystillian that can change her appearance without harming her body. Raisa cannot physically change herself, but she can change her hair, her eyes, so on.   
“Well, maybe just for this event, you should take off your gloves Raisa.” She flinches, I could feel the glare she had on me. Raisa’s family will not allow her to be around anyone that is not her Soulmate. The problem is, she doesn’t know who that is, and even if she did. Almost every family member that has found their Soulmate, has died because of them.  
“Novus, you’re really pushing that aren’t you. I don’t want to meet my Soulmate, I’ve been kicked out already because I didn’t find them by the time I was 18.” I smile,  
“And I was obviously nice enough to let you come into my house.” she scoffs,  
“I will never find my Soulmate Novus, and I don’t plan to.” Raisa bumps past me walking until I can no longer see her. My eyes close as I take a deep breath, the stress was getting to me,  
My head thumps, I rub my temples and continue on. The castle is surrounded by a body of water originally used to keep intruders out, I stare out a window, the bright sun shines on my face. A small town lies in front of the castle, a beach opens after that, a beautiful ocean surrounding our country of Crystallia. Then, for a brief moment the world turns dark, a red liquid drips down the window slowly. Bodies form piles in the village, the ocean’s red, a massacre. My head pounds, this wasn’t stress, a hand grabs mine covered in gloves, I look up at a woman standing before me in a rabbit mask, “You seem lost,” she giggles, “let me help you.”  
In a flash I’m falling outside the window, the red liquid covering my body. Brambles appear out of a bush pulling me down, in a panic I pull back causing blue blood to drip out of my arms. The woman in the rabbit mask lands beside me, she takes off her mask to reveal a blank face, black liquid dripped from her fish eyes and ears, she smiles and the liquid pours out of her mouth onto my body, she leans in close, a foul stench of darkness about her, “Have you seen the Crystal of Light, Novus?” A scream bubbles out, my body pulls up, someone grabs my arms, pulling me out of the thorns, blue blood drips onto my clothes.  
“Novus!” I am pulled back into reality. Liam cradles me in his arms. I look down at the floor, and my arms. Nothing, it was fake, I was back at the castle staring out the window, “Novus what the hell happened? I found you passed out on the floor!” His finger tip barely touches my skin, but a burst of energy surges through both of our bodies, our eyes glow a bright yellow, and Liam quickly drops me to the floor. The Soulmate Touch, the reason why Raisa wears gloves. Cowardice fills my body, and I could see the fear in his eyes, “I’m..I’m sorry Novus.” Opal rushes over, touching my forehead,  
“I’ll take her to the med lab, but she doesn’t seem to be sick. It’s probably just stress,” Liam nods, rubbing his finger tip. Opal lifts my chin up, checking my eyes moving her delicate fingers allowing me to follow it, “Novus, how are you feeling, what did you see?”  
I look up at Opal, she stares at me waiting for an answer,  
“Crystillia, this whole world went through something terrible.” She tilts her head helping me up,  
Liam seems to almost flinch, “Did you see a woman?”  
“Yes,” I say, “How did you know?”  
He goes pale and crosses his arms, “You need to go to the Crystal of Light.”  
“How do you-”  
He cuts me off again, “There’s an Unspoken here.”


	2. The Rabbit

“Novus! Wait up, how can you even trust what Liam is saying! How would he know there’s an Unspoken?”  
I rush towards the basement door and pause, “He told me everything I saw in that vision, I can’t delay this.”  
Opal grabs my arm pulling me back, “Novus please. At least wait until the others are here.” Opal’s auburn eyes seem to shine red as I shake my head running down the steps to my basement. Opal followed behind,  
“The Crystal of Light is what powers Crystillia, It gives all of us power, and a fracture of the crystal is in my crown. The woman in my vision asked me to see the crystal. The Crystal of Light could be in trouble, and I can’t allow that.” 

As I travel down the light shines brighter, Opal stops when she hears the others above, “Nice of you to join me, Princess.” A woman sits on top of the crystal holding my crown, tossing fragments down at Radial. Her face covered with a rabbits mask, just like my vision  
“Who are you?” The woman smiles, twirling the crown around her finger,  
“Do you know the legend of the Unspoken.”  
I tense up, the Unspoken has never been mentioned in this castle for years, is Liam right? The last time I heard that was when I was simply a child,  
“It's just a bedtime story isn’t it?” The woman laughs, shaking her head. Her hair changes colors, half black, half brown,  
“Do you want to hear a bedtime story then?” I slowly nod my head, “We may not utter his name, he will bring you bad luck. They said, Somewhere along that line, his name came out. His name, the unspoken, was awakened. Thousands coward in fear, he destroyed everything. Genocide, reigned over the universe. Humans were absolutely wiped out, only hundreds remained. Angels were massacred and three known angels remained. Demons? Their forces were downgraded to half. Everlastings, became a dead race. The unspoken reigned victorious. His dark forces were scattered across the universe to finish off what he had started. He was satisfied, he sat in his lofty throne. Obliterating anyone who dares oppose him. The unspoken was king. An Angel Everlasting and her 7 disciples stood up one day, each one filled with the power of light. They had a chance, they could've stopped him. If only, they weren't betrayed. A close ally, the Protector of Light had become corrupt. She chose the darkness, she betrayed the 8. Slaughtering almost everyone. The Angel Everlasting before her death sealed the Unspoken into a crystal along with the Protector of Light. Her dying breath was to have the only disciple left, barely even an adult, take her new born child, the next generation of light. The disciple took her child far away to earth where they would be safe. Populations were reborn, the Disciple and Everlasting grew up in peace. At least, for now.” The woman jumps down, grabbing my chin.  
“The Unspoken isn’t real.” She smiles,  
“You’re looking at one Princess” She grabs my arm, a soft cloth touches instead of skin, she’s wearing gloves, I summon my rapier swinging at her, “Oh I didn’t realize you had the warrior aspect this reset,”   
What is she talking about? “I hope you’ve trained then.” My legs wobble, it’s been months since I last trained. Radial rubs his head, slowly standing up and points to the crystal. A small crack forms, the Unspoken smiles gently pushing me to the ground, never taking out a weapon just watching,  
“Why are you here?” She smiles, picking up the crown.  
“I want to stop him. I have to do something, but I can’t with him in the way.” She raises the crown over her head, turning away from me, and walking towards Radial, but then someone hits the crown and falls to the ground an emerald jewel falls off as it shatters into pieces. A man’s voice wavers, but becomes more confident, more upset as he went on,  
“Hey there.” The Unspoken, falls back, she hesitates, then stomps her foot on the ground, like she’s having a tantrum.  
“I thought you were universes away! Stop trying to interfere! ” The man smiles, brushing his silver hair back out of his face,  
“You know I’m not here to help her, I just have a score to settle with you.” The Unspoken glances over to me, then back to the man,  
“A score you won’t get to settle today.” and in a blink of an eye she was gone. Everyone finally appears, Rave runs over hugging me tightly, Liam stays near the door avoiding the touch, Amelia is with Radial, Opal starts checking both of our vitals, and Raisa is frozen in place, stopped in her tracks, staring at the man that came after The Unspoken. She grits her teeth and steps forward,  
“Who are you?” The man glances up, seeing Raisa he pauses, seeming to break a facade. Then he smiles,  
“Let’s go with, Xeno.” Raisa, shakes her head,  
“I thought you were someone I knew.” Xeno smirks,  
“I guess it’s because we’re Soulmates,” The basement becomes silent, Opal even looks up from the treatments, he smirks as Raisa steps back, grasping her gloves, “What, are you scared of me? Scared of your Soulmate. Scared of someone touching you intimately? Scared that you may die because I want to hold you forever,” Raisa grabs her head, running upstairs. Xeno sighs, shaking his head, “she always runs.” He twirls around, making his way towards me,  
“What do you want?”  
Xeno smiles gleefully, “A thank you, I just saved your life, and you are here glaring at me.” I give a gruff thanks, yanking my crown from his hands. The emerald lays in the middle broken in half, my eyes well up and I could feel to thorns crawling up my body,  
“Hey,” Rave whispers in my ear, slowly rubbing my shoulder, “Everything will work out okay. You just have to rely on me. That’s my job right?” he slowly removes the crown from my hands,  
“I suppose, but what am I going to do? The ceremony is today, the Unspoken just attacked” Rave touches my hand, I look up at him, the pain didn’t go away,  
He brushes strands of hair out of my eyes, “Radial can fix your crown, I think we should postpone the ceremony.”  
“But-” he covers my mouth, my eyes pan back over to Xeno,  
“Lover Boy’s right princess. You’re being watched now, you need to be careful.” Rave lowers his arm,  
“Go back upstairs, please. We will clean up this mess.” Everyone nods their heads, slowly I walk towards the stairs. The others crowd around the mess, but Liam grabs my shirt pulling me closer to him,  
“Can we talk?” He looks at me, I could see the hurt in his eyes, the pain grows deeper,  
“I’m sorry, but we can’t do this right now,” he sighs, moving his hand closer to my skin, “don’t.”  
“Can’t we at least go out as friends so we can talk about what just happened to you?”   
My eyes glance over to Rave, he’s giving Opal directions, and looks annoyed, I sigh, “Okay. Tonight, I’ll choose the restaurant.”  
Liam smiles, “Thank you Novus.” he lets go of my shirt and watches me slowly climb up the steps, as I reach the top I see Liam wince in pain grabbing his arm. I notice he has a tattoo on his arm. I clench my teeth, attempting to recall a conversation I had with Liam just a week ago.  
“C’mon Liam let’s get matching tattoos! It’ll be fun!”  
Liam sighs, “Novus I’m not getting wrangled into one of your schemes. Besides I don’t even like tattoos, they’re trashy. Get one with your boy toy.”  
I look down the stairs and Liam is gone. A nervous feeling bubbles up inside me, was Liam working with the Unspoken? I clutch my necklace, I suppose we’ll find out tonight. Inhale, Exhale. Everything will be okay, nothing can possibly go wrong. No, never say that, then everything WILL go wrong. We just have to face life head-on, I’ll be prepared for Liam no matter what.


	3. The Unspoken

“The Unspoken Complex is an organization run by descendants of the first Unspoken, Sympathizers, and their Slaves. The Slaves have a tattoo filled with magical energy that forces them to do what the Unspoken says.”  
A younger me stands up on my bed hugging the woman beside me, “What does the tattoo look like?”  
The woman smiles, “Have you ever seen a circle with an eye in the middle.” I shake my head,  
“No, but I can imagine what it looks like!” the woman brushes back my hair, kissing my forehead,  
“Good. Maybe someday I’ll ask your mother if I can teach you the Dispel chant.”  
The vision fades as I’m awoken from my daydream. She never showed me the spell, I close my eyes. I’ve never seen Liam’s tattoo, just the outline. I’ve never gotten close enough to him. My eyes open, I’m in front of the mirror, putting on my necklace. A knock on the door,  
“Are you ready to go Novus?” Liam stands at the opening, not looking, keeping his back turned, waiting for a surprise. I smile, pull up gloves, tapping his shoulder,  
“I’ve decided where we’re going.” he turns around, with his face turning a light pink. His lips twitch, as he composes himself,  
“And where is that?” I wrap my arm around him,  
“Rainbow’s Bar.” Liam sighs as if he knew I would make that choice,  
“Come on then,” he flicks his wrist allowing a portal to appear in front of us, “ladies first.” I nod, allowing myself to be engulfed into the shadows, when I open my eyes a woman with rainbow colored hair hugs me,  
“Novus! I’m so glad you’re here! Did you bring him? Do you want me to put a magical barrier around us?” I smile rubbing her arm, the woman takes a deep breath,  
“I’ll be okay Rainbow. Just, don’t tell Rave I’m here with him.” Liam appears next to me, sitting in the booth waiting patiently,  
“Are we going to talk or what?” Rainbow pulls my chair back allowing me to sit in front of him, “you’re wearing your crystal necklace.” I grip onto the chain tightly twirling the crystal in a circle,  
“I always have it with me, why bring it up now?” Liam rubs his arm, shrugging to my question,  
“Can you at least tell me why it’s so important to you, I want to make conversion.”  
“It’s a fragment of the Crystal of Light,” Liam’s eyes darted towards me, his attention is grabbed, “It’s been past down for generations, but because I’m a possible descendant of the true queen, the crown and crystal should react allowing me to become a Watcher of Time.” He tilts his head,  
“What’s a Watcher of Time?” I sigh,  
“People, gifted with amazing powers, to control time, and sway people’s choices. They are given a timeline to watch and make sure the world stays on track. There’s not many left because most of them become corrupted, and then the Guardian of Time removes them from their position, permanently.” the words stammer out as I lose my focus to Liam flinching,  
“I’m fine, just a small headache.” he urges me to continue,  
“The most recent Guardian was named Aether, she was a child during the Battle of Crystallia, the true queen tried to save the young child, but ended up giving the child her powers.”  
Liam ponders, “That was thousands of years ago.  
Are you saying this child has been alive even in the new age?”  
“Aether created this new age. Watchers have prolonged life, they keep their appearance when their powers are awakened, but the Guardian is immortal. They choose the form they want, they choose who to give their power to. There hasn't been one Watcher that hasn’t turned Corrupt.” Liam stares down,  
“Unfortunate.” I feel thorns squeeze around my neck, as I stand up,  
“Why do you care so much suddenly about my powers.” He sighs, and stands up walking next to me, briskly rubbing his arm against my skin causing both of our eyes to light up, the thorns grow deeper, he leans close to my ear,  
“Can’t I just be interested in my old friend?” he begins to wrap his arms around mine, poison courses through my throat,  
“Don’t touch me Liam. You know I don’t like it.” Liam smirks,  
“Do I? Or was it just me agreeing to get you off my case.” Rainbow glances over, tensing while serving a customer, Liam wasn’t alone. I nodded my head in her direction, Rainbow briskly apologizing to the woman she was serving grabbing her own phone. The woman stands up forcing Rainbow to drop the device to the floor,  
“Sorry,” the woman smiles, “I’m so clumsy all I wanted to do was compliment you on your necklace.” Liam lets go of my arm looking at the woman,  
“How did you know- oh, I know who you are. Get out.” The lady pouts twirling around,  
“You won’t even say my name? That’s not very nice, I haven’t seen you in years and yet all I wanted to do is see your beautiful necklace, where’d you get it by the way, I would love to grab a necklace just like it.” Rainbow turns to me, but by the time she opened her mouth Liam had already grabbed my necklace and started to run out of the store. The woman disappears in a puff of smoke, I raise my phone, already calling my Rave.  
“Novus what the hell is going on? Why are you at the Rainbow’s Bar?”  
“Obviously, I’m busting a traitor who just ran with a decoy. You still got the crystal?” He sighs saying yes, “You’re outside with your car, aren't you.”  
“I mean- yeah. Raisa has her motorcycle, but Liam ustole that so I’m all you have.” I grimace,  
“We need to go home, I’ll be out right now.”  
“Scheiße.” He sighs, “got it,” The engine roars outside. I close my eyes, light surrounds me and once I open my eyes, Rave is staring at me in shock, “you did not just use your powers when Opal told you not to.”  
“And she doesn’t need to know, ” he sighs, nodding,  
“What happened? I thought you two were, chill.”  
“He’s a slave to an Unspoken. She was there, the woman from before.” My head is thrown back from Rave stopping the car,  
“We are not going after him if he’s related to an Unspoken! He doesn’t have the real crystal anyway! I can’t have you getting hurt! You’re sick enough after you just met that woman!” The thorns from before have never left, they loosened, but it was still hard to breathe. Rave tilts his head, “this isn’t just about the necklace is it, your own personal feelings.” Silence, brambles in my throat.  
“He’s my Soulmate Rave, how could I not feel betrayed? How could I not want to go after him. Sure he’s a dick, but he’s being forced to do this.”  
The wind flows through my hair as Rave drives. The town’s lights slowly begin to turn on and the stars slowly come out. I hate cars, motorcycles, anything mechanical other than trains. Rave’s hand touches mine, he keeps his eyes on the road, but sighs, “Novus, I understand, but right now you have a coronation to think about, maybe relationships aren’t what you need right now.”  
“What are you saying? I want to be with someone!”  
Rave stops the car, we’re at the castle. He touches my cheeks and stares into eyes, “Exactly Novus, you want to be with someone, you don’t know who. What do you want?”  
“What do I want?” He nods his head, “I..want a perfect world, with no consequences. I want someone to be with me.”  
“But what do you need?” He wipes away a tear that escaped my eye,  
“I..I don’t know..”  
“You need to figure out who you truly are. Find your real potential. Novus, I’m sorry, maybe we should take a break.”  
A thorn stabs me in the heart, I could feel the tears welling up, that’s when I realized how much pain I truly was in. Rose petals drip from my nose and my arms, the last thing I see is the constellation of Hora. Then I pass out into Rave’s arms.


	4. The Cat

“Novus will be fine Rave, don’t worry so much. I’m giving her an IV, but otherwise, she’s hurt. That’s her Soulmate, as much as you want to be, you’re not. How do you think Ay-”  
“Don’t, finish that sentence Opal, I don’t want to think about her right now.” Even though they were outside, their voices carried to my ears. Rave took me home, I banished Liam from Crystaillia. Everyone was silent, though I heard Rave and Raisa were fairly happy about it. Liam, a traitor. The one person that I actually trusted betrayed me. Every time I moved the IV shifted in my arm, causing an unpleasant sensation. Opal slowly walks in,  
“How are you?” I chuckle, resting my head onto the soft warm pillow, “I understand.”  
“I should be relieved, now I have more time to focus on Rave, but,” Opal smooths my hair down, she begins to braid it, slowly,  
“Novus, I understand. I loved this wonderful person until I found my Soulmate. I was confused. Scared, but I knew my love would be happy with me just being near them.”  
I glanced up at her, “Did you ever tell them how you feel?” Opal smiles, lost in thought. She stops braiding for a moment only to take a deep breath and continue,  
“No, but you know them better than anyone else.” Opal finishes the braid,   
“Opal, what do you mean?” She shakes her head,  
“I just wish I told them sooner, now they're trapped between two different people, and two different worlds.” Realization hits me. The braid drapes across my shoulder,   
“I'm sorry.” Opal smiles,  
“It’s not important, right now I just want to make sure you’re safe. Now, ” Opal glances around the room, ”was someone else was there when Liam attacked you?” her question was sincere, her voice had a calm tone of bedside manner, it was obvious in her eyes, Opal was nervous,  
”Yes, ” the memories flow back from the fleeting moment, ”a woman,” the woman stood up at the cafe, teasing Rainbow briefly, ”the woman had vitiligo.” Opal's eyes light up,  
”Where are her patches? It’ll be easy to identify her if we know.” The woman had a circle around her left eye, a patch around the right side of her lip, and the most distinguished patch, the mark on her right arm. The same mark the Unspoken that attacked me. I explain the patches to Opal, the Unspoken’s face was burned into my head. Everything about her drove me crazy. I don't even know her name, an Unspoken’s name such a dangerous wonder to ponder on. There were always rumors that if someone said their name they’ll become unstoppable, Opal begins to ask me several questions, it came all at once   
”Opal, can I just rest?” she pauses,   
”Of course, but I would still love to hear more about the Unspoken’s-” Opal stops mid sentence as a man in white slinks into the room, “good afternoon Uppermost Kahn, why have you graced us with your presence today?” Opal flinches slightly as the man moves forward, bowing her head in respect, and in fear. The man towers over me, his face deadpanned,   
“And why have you not greeted me Novillia.” His words soaked with venom, fear of a great ruler, a race that was seemingly superior,  
“That’s not my name.” He chuckles slightly,  
“You believe that you deserve respect over a cast out name. A name that the Angel Council gave to you,” he chuckles, “what a waste of DNA.” Opal flinches once again, slowly overcoming her fear,  
“Why are you here, Novus and-”  
“Novillia.” her tail twitches,  
“Novus, and I are not usually an interest for the Angels.” He smiles, poison rushing through his teeth you can almost see the venom dripping down,  
“I’m here because Novillia is not the queen yet. Angelus is in turmoil because you aren’t crowned.”  
“I was suppose to be crowned yesterday. I was attacked, surely you know about this.”   
“Of course, you banished one of your Pure Light’s because he’s an Unspoken’s slave. I don’t understand why you didn’t just use the Dispel Chant,” he pauses, “Oh wait, you were never taught actual magic.”  
I always thought Angels were suppose to be the kind beings that watched over us when we were failing. This man was no Angel. Every fiber in my being was twitching urging to yell, revolt at him. Opal was uncomfortable, I felt sick at the mention of my past. Kahn knew all of this, yet he played it to his advantage. I couldn’t let myself be used as a toy, as a puppet for his amusement,  
I huff, “I don’t appreciate you mocking me. Trinie was never the type to teach me anything useful.”  
Kahn chuckles, raising an eyebrow at the mention of Trinie, “And is that why you killed her? She was simply a little too rough on you, so you overtake the throne?”  
Brambles appear in my throat, but I persisted, “She abused me, she experimented on me every single day! Just being in this room with an IV makes me sick! I did what I had to, not to mention Kito was even worse I felt so uncomfortable I-”  
“Do not mention Kito’s name around me, a pitiful demon isn’t worth my ears. You’re a hybrid, a mutt. No wonder your real parents didn’t appreciate you.”  
The words stop, the brambles take over and suddenly, I couldn’t defend my actions, I couldn’t defend myself. The tears drip down like a waterfall that was just let loose, monitors go crazy, I feel crazy, Opal rushes over to calm my shaking body. Her fear of Kahn was overtaken by the healer side,   
“That’s enough! You’re making Novus’ condition worse, get out of this room!”   
From the corner of my eye I see Kahn hesitate, from what I didn’t know. Opal’s new found confidence, or the fact that he truly didn’t mean to go as far as he did. Whatever the reason, he quickly recovers his loftiness,   
“A waste of my time. Here,” Kahn tosses a book onto my lap, tears soak through the leather, running down into the cold dry hands of mine,  
“What..what is it?”   
He scoffs, acting as if I should know exactly what the book was, “A book, full of names of Slaves, and the Unspokens.”   
Before I can say thank you Kahn is gone, the tears subside as do the chills, I take a deep breath opening the book, inside the cover a note falls into my lap. Opal gently opens to note, then tilts her head. I glance over and she cautiously hands me the slip  
“It's the Dispel Chant. What does he want me to do with this?” as I search through the names I see the reason he truly came.  
Opal sits waiting for an answer, “Novus? What is it?”  
“Kahn is a Slave of the Unspoken I fought. She, she wants me to Dispel someone, but who? Why?”  
“Novus are you sure that Kahn didn’t try to break the spell.”  
“I’m sure, because this is what the Dispel Chant says, I free you from this curse, for better or for worse, so you can live again, for a life not in vain, Love Yanamarie-wait.”  
“Novus is that the Unspoken’s name. You just said her name, we’re not supposed to say their names. It’ll awaken their powers.”  
“Well..well, yeah but maybe that’s just a tall tale y’know?”  
“Or maybe it’s not.”  
“Opal, what are we suppose to do? This is just adding on to the stress I already have! What if someone figures it out!” As I finish my sentence Raisa knocks on the door,  
“Novus you need to get ready for The Crowning today,” I nodded my head, hoping she heard nothing, “I’ll keep this a secret if you want.”  
“Please, don’t tell anyone. It’ll freak the others out and I have to get ready,” Raisa crosses her arms,  
“What do I get out of it?””  
I flinch, “Uh..” She smiles,  
“I’m kidding Novus, this mouth will be sealed shut for you!”  
“Thank you Raisa.”


	5. The Lover

“Did you deliver my message Kahn?” Kahn sighs nodding, a deep grin crawls up, “everything will be better now. It has to be.”  
“You won't win.” Kahn says,  
My heart drops, I take a deep breath, “I don't want to win, I just want, I want to see her again.”  
Kahn forcefully grabs my arm, he grimaces, “It makes no sense, you want to see her yet you take everything she loves or cherishes.”  
I shiver opening my mouth, “You’re wrong. He did that, not me, I have no free will. Besides, Liam was hurting her anyway, and let’s face it, no one likes Angels. I’m just making it more, swerked.”  
“This isn’t a news broadcast Yanamarie, this is real life and Novillia is smarter than you think.” Kahn says letting go of my arm a deep red imprint was left, I touch the mark lightly flinching, the rage took hold of me,  
“But what about her friends? Raisa found her Soulmate a paradox in the system, Amelia keeps to herself, her own problems stay her own problems, Liam’s banished, Opal is distracted with her job, Radial is lost in his projects, and don’t get me started on the issues Rave has.”  
Kahn crosses his arms, “Your point?  
“Novus can’t handle all of their problems at once, she’ll crack, and so will all of them, she’ll fall down the grapevine to come crawling, to me. Where she can help me and break my curse like a beautiful knight in shining armour!” Words spit like venom, I was scared, the darkness was taking hold of me, I just wanted something, someone to save me from this prison.   
“This isn’t a fairy tale, you're delusional.”  
It hurt, I wanted it to be a fairy tale, I wanted to forget the past and move on, “I never asked for this. I never asked to wake up in this world, to look like this, to fall in love, only to lose the one person that understood me, I, I never asked for any of this.”  
Silence, Kahn stares at me, “We’re not talking about Novillia anymore are we.” I wasn’t, I wasn’t talking about Novus, she was my only escape,  
“If I have to make the most of me being in this world, I might as well just comply and do my orders. You should too. You will continue to do as I say until I get what I want! Someone who will save me from this hell!” Venom pours filling up my lungs, it filled Kahns as well,  
“She doesn’t love you and she never will! Novillia will never help an Unspoken, she will never come here, you might as well just forget about it.” Then, the venom stops, and all that is left is the cold reality, Kahn stood above me, towering  
“Please,” I mumble, “be quiet.” His mouth was sealed, I wipe an escaped tear and huff, “Liam! Come here!” Liam slinks over, he was watching the whole time, listening to the venomous words, hearing me speak of his Soulmate in ways that only he should, Liam leans against the wall crossing his arms.  
“What is it now?” he sighs,  
“We’re going to crash her crowning and you’re going to become the Watcher of Time. We’re going to fix this.” Liam grimaces, clenching his body, if only he knew what I did,  
“I’m banished from Crystillia because of you. I can’t see my Soulmate because of you!” Liam shouted,   
Ironic, two people with almost the same story, “I can’t see my Soulmate either. I’ve survived this long without the interaction I’m sure you can too.”  
“You’re an Unspoken. You’re alive until Novus is dead. She’s my Soulmate and we become weak if we don’t ever see each other.” I know that isn’t true, I smile, teasing him.  
“That’s perfect! If she’s weak then it’ll be even easier to grab her crown and necklace!”  
“That’s not-”  
I cut him off, “Liam, go away.” He listens, he has no choice but to. My head pounds, he is listening,  
“Yanamarie, you’re failing to wake my next descendant up.” my face heats up thinking of Novus dying because of me once again,  
“I am not. It’s just taking a bit more time to find someone that is worthy.”  
The Unspoken laughs, “Or you’re stalling. You don’t want Novus to die,” my lip twitches, I set my pen down and pick at my fingers, “there it is.”  
“You’re wrong, I don’t know who to choose.” Vastus already made a body for the new Unspoken.  
“Rave is Leto’s son, he’s a good ‘choice’ for you.”  
“Rave? You mean Novus’ boy?” I pause, “he would be a good choice I guess.” I didn’t want him to be, I don’t want to hurt any of the Pure Lights.  
“Exactly. Your idea about the crowning is beautiful Yanamarie, but corrupt Rave and make it even better.”  
“Corrupt him? He’s a Pure Light can they be corrupted?” I didn’t want to corrupt him, I hate the feeling of using the darkness.  
“Corruption is simply when their soul is taken over by their dark desires, I’m sure that their light can be taken over, but,” he pauses as a chill goes down my spine as he begins to laugh, “you can always test it on a Pure Light you already have.” My eyes dart to Liam standing in the back, listening.  
“Liam? I need him for my plan.”  
“And what better way is there than to make his desire come out? Especially with his desire.”  
Liam looks at me, we lock eyes, I quickly look away, “What is his desire?”  
“For a world with no consequences, a world where he can take Novus and no one would care, though I doubt he even knows that is what he wants. It’s natural for Soulmates to long for each other,” he pauses, “of course you would understand Yanamarie.” He always knew where to hit,  
I lower my voice, “Will he still listen to me?”  
“With some resistance, but yes. You may have to lock him up if you want to use Novus.”   
I clench my fist, “I’ll do it, but if I corrupt Liam, I won’t corrupt Rave.”  
I could almost feel him smiling, “I’ll allow it.”  
A sigh of relief, “I will corrupt him.”  
“Good girl,” he purred, “Now run along to Vastus and collect some darkness.”   
A hope pops into my head, “Sir.”  
“What is it?” he sighs.  
“Do you think Novus will actually fulfill the prophecy and kill the Unspoken we awaken?”  
He laughs, the goosebumps appear, “How many resets have we been through and she’s been killed before we even found a vessel?”  
I take a deep breath, trying my best to recall just how long ago it was my journal no longer kept the times, “235 times she has died before we found a vessel 10 times she died before the final battle, and twice her Pure Lights woke up to fight the vessel and she never woke up. So 247 times she has failed.” And I killed her 124 times, against my will.  
“Exactly.”  
“Why have we not moved on? Shouldn’t the next generation begin when this generation fails?” This generation fails, I no longer have to deal with this,  
The Unspoken sighs, attempting to come up with a reason, “I’m starting to believe she has help that even she does not know about.”  
“Gods?”  
He mumbled, thinking to himself, then finally I hear his voice in my head, “Send someone to investigate.”  
“Of course sir, but you know, maybe her 248th will be her time and she’ll win!” I pray to the Gods she wins this time, I can’t keep acting like this when he listens,  
He laughs, “I doubt it. She’s presistant, but dumb.” and then he was gone from my thoughts,  
My face heats up once again, thinking of her. I rest my head upon a cold desk and sigh, “True. That’s why I love her.”


	6. The Vision

My stomach drops, I’m sitting on my bed, 5 hours before I become queen, sitting in sweats, my hair in knots, and looking as if I’m about to throw up. Someone knocks and opens the door slowly, Opal’s head pokes in, “Novus, you need to get ready for the crowning.”  
“I know, I know it’s just, I feel sick. I think it’s nerves, you know? So many people watching me, what if I mess up? What if something goes wrong?”  
She dodges water bottles and cups and sits next to me, “You’re worried about something more than that, aren't you.”  
The stress overflows like a Dandelion finally flying free, “Yes Opal! I said Yana’s name! She either has full power or she at least knows I said her name! We weren’t supposed to let anyone know I said it and I’m pretty sure Raisa told everyone even if she promised not to!”  
“Novus that was your fault. We don’t even know if that is a true part of the prophecy.”  
She wasn’t helping me,“Yes? You’re point? I still feel like I’m dying inside! What if she kills everyone? What if she kills me, during the Crowning!?”  
Opal’s hand touches mine, I flinch, she draws back, “Novus calm down, think about your breathing. You have us, our job is to protect you and that’s what we will do.”  
“Don’t waste your life for me.”  
She touches my cheek, “I would give my life for you at any moment, you are more important than anyone.” Guilt.  
“Opal, don’t do this.”  
“Novus-” She draws closer, I draw back,  
“Opal you don’t understand do you? My Soulmate betrayed me intentionally or not it still hurts, Rave thinks I can’t handle myself he said I needed a break from relationships. I need to take a step back and realize what my life truly is and what my potential is!”  
Silence, and then a sound, “You broke up with Rave?”  
I nod, Opal sits next to me, her tail curls around my waist.  
“Are you okay?” I wasn’t,  
“He told me to think about what I needed, I was stressed, I..I didn’t know what to say, he told me I haven’t found the person that I truly need, and that we needed a break? My head is going crazy, I have felt this way ever since I met Yana.”  
Opal’s head tilted, “Yana?”  
I finally perk up, hearing her name from someone else, but then I draw back was it normal to feel this way? “Oh, Yanamarie. It’s like a nickname, cute, easy to say.” I become lost in my thoughts, Opal face turns dark,  
“Novus, she’s an Unspoken. She’s not cute, she’s evil.”  
“I..I think she’s cute.”  
She starts laughing, “Novus do you hear yourself right now? Have you fallen in love with an Unspoken?”  
“Lov...Love? No..no! That’s ridiculous! Like you said, she’s the enemy and that’s the reason I’m being crowned. To gain the powers of a Watcher of Time and defeat her.”  
Opal sighs, she touches my cheek, “Novus, a woman like that, is incapable of love. She is not worth your time,” Opal’s tail smacks my face as she stands, “Just focus on getting ready, I’ll send servants in to help you with hair and the dress.” Opal shuts the door gently, leaving me alone once again. Did I love Yana? I’ve only seen her twice, that’s such a superficial relationship. I’ve never truly seen what she looks like and everytime I see her she tries to kill me so I don’t know about her personality. Why do I feel like I’ve known her for thousands of years? Thoughts bubble inside me, I think I spent 30 minutes dislocating, then the servants came. They corset my waist to death, but I couldn’t tell. Everything seemed so distant, it felt as if it was slow motion. They talked and gossiped while fixing my hair, it was so loud,  
“You’re so beautiful my lady.” They turned me towards the mirror, was I beautiful? All I could see was an empty shell. The servants exit, only for Raisa to bust in and Xeno slink behind her.  
“Novus!” Raisa gasps for air, “Liam..Liam is trying to steal your power!”  
“What?”  
“I saw him! He’s outside!” Liam, I banished him. She’s lying, “Novus please postpone the Crowning!”  
“You’re lying.”  
“What? Why..Why would I lie about that?”  
“I banished Liam, he's not here! I know this! He’s not here, he can’t be here! He can’t be! He can’t be!”  
“Novus, that blue dress doesn’t match your shoes,” What..? Xeno smirks, “Your hair is a mess, who did it a blind pig?” What is he saying? “I don’t even understand why Opal would try to make a dress just for you, you’re so picky it was probably a nightmare,” Stop it, “Maybe there’s a reason why Liam left you,” Stop! “It’s probably because you’re just a child.”   
“STOP IT!” my eyes open, and they were gone. Everything was gone, “where am I?”  
“We’re going to crash her crowning and you’re going to become the Watcher of Time.” voices again, it's Yana.  
“I can’t see my Soulmate because of you!” Liam?  
“And what better way is there than to make his desire come out? Especially with a desire like his.” Who?  
“I don’t want to hurt her!” Liam and Yana appear in front of me,  
“I’m sorry.” Yana blows a dark cluster into Liam’s face. He gasped in pain, clutching his head. I call out his name, but nothing comes out. Yana slinks back looking distraught, I try to run towards them, but thorns grab my hands clumping them into fists. Blue blood drips down, slowly becoming a puddle that begins to pull me deeper down. Suddenly, the world changes. I bolt up, shivering and shaking wouldn’t stop. Xeno and Raisa sit beside me. Raisa looked at me with great concern, while Xeno starred in amusement, his lips curl,  
“Well? What did you see?”  
I glare at him, “How did you know?”  
He tilts his bed, “Hm?”  
“How did you know that stress triggers my visions.”  
“I know a lot about you. For example stress triggers a lot of things for you.” Xeno smiles amused,  
The stress gets to me, “So, do you really think I look bad?”  
“Novus, you look literally fine. The highlight is popping.” I laugh slightly, Raisa growls and moves Xeno aside,  
“We have more pressing matters than her makeup! Do you believe me now?”  
I nod my head, “Yes.”  
“We have to cancel the Crowning.”  
“No,” I stand up clutching the side of my bed looking towards the door, “this is the perfect opportunity to save him.  
“What do you mean?”  
“I’ll be bait. We’ll hold the crowing. If he attacks me, have Amelia summon a Crystal Barrier around the throne and myself. We don’t know what powers the crown and my necklace have when together, or when it’s disrupted from claiming a host.”  
“So be prepared.” I nod,  
“Be ready for anything, we may have to fight Yanamarie.”


	7. The Crowing

Chills run up my spine the nerves finally hit, I was about to become queen, but death may come to me before the crown even touches my head. As I walk down the halls the eyes beat down on me, brambles appear in my throat. I couldn’t breathe, all my friends were in the throne room, waiting. I couldn’t depend on them right now,  
“Novus?”  
“Rave? Wha..what are you doing you should be in the throne room.”  
“But, you wouldn’t have a friend to keep you from running away if we were all in there.” A friend, he says, I smile,  
“Thank you.” Rave holds out his hand, I take it,  
“Come on.” He takes my arm gently guiding me towards the Throne Room. Guards open the door revealing the 5 other Pure Lights all in a row, Rave joins the line and nods to the others. The villagers all bow as I step onto the carpet in the room. It was silent, so silent the fabric of my dress was the only sound other than my heart thumping. A man stands in front of the throne holding the crown that Radial had fixed, an Opal stone replaced where the Emerald once was. I kneel in front of him,  
“Novillia Lightheart, under the guidance of the Angel Council do you swear to provide the best choices for your country and depend on your companions in times of need.”   
“Yes.”  
“And do you swear by the Crystal to never turn to the darkness and protect the Crystal of Light.”  
“I swear by the Crystal.”  
“Then I hereby dub thee Queen Novillia Lightheart of the country Crystillia.” I take a deep breath as he begins to lower the crown upon my head. This is the moment that Liam is waiting for. If he’s going to move it’s now. I glance over at Amelia in her hands. She held a crystal, Raisa’s finger raised ready to tap Amelia’s arm at any notice of a disturbance. There’s nothing though, only silence. The crown braces around my head, lighting pain shoots through my body, then I feel it. My Soulmate touches my arm, the pain going through my body was replaced with a vibrant sensation. I could only hear my heart thumping. All I could see was Liam grabbing my shoulder pulling the crystal off the chain. It becomes dark as Amelia’s barrier closes around us. The chain breaks causing Liam to fall back into the barrier. With my remaining strength I grab Liam’s arm falling into his lap,  
“Wha...what are you doing?” I grab his mark,  
“ I free you from this curse, for better or for worse, so you can live again, for a life not in vain” Suddenly, the world begins to spin, I close my eyes to make it stop, but the feeling persists. Then, they open, and I’m alone. No longer in a barrier, and Liam is no longer by my side. I heard a murmur in the air traveling through my ears and drifting away into the breeze. Someone is here, I just have to find them. The world went on endlessly, I felt as if I was walking for hours. Magic was blocked, I couldn’t change my clothes, it got so tiring I began to carry my heels. The murmurs became whispers, I understood almost every word. The fabric of my dress was no longer canceling out the sounds, I felt hope. My pace picks up, as the adrenaline begins to rush. Then, I stop. The world ended at a cliff, but it continued on with television the size of houses. Memories from deep within me showed that even I forgot existed.   
“Then we shall name her Novillia and under the Angel Council will she be protected.” My eyes dart over, Kahn held me in his arms, a beautiful woman lay in bed, seeming exhausted her arm was etched with black lines looking almost like wires to another child she held. I was not the only child born this day. The man next to the woman smiles,  
“It is a pretty name,” the woman shook her head, “what, are you upset that Kahn got to name her and not you?” she grimaces shifting trying to hold me and the other,  
“I know what I want her name to be.” Kahn shakes his head,  
“Eden, you know how this works, she has Angel blood, the council takes the name into consideration and decides from there. We are not having your daughter's name be a pun.” her head sways   
“Like hell you won’t, you aren’t in my house watching if I call her Novillia or not.”   
“Don’t tempt me.” Kahn sighed,   
The man tilts his head, “Eden, what did you want to name her?” Eden smirks and gently rubs my head,  
“Novus, Novus Hope,” the television begins to repeat the memory. I take a step back, that was my mother, my real mother. The woman who was the maid in the castle. Trinie banished her from Crystillia for being a traitor and working for a resistance group against the royals. She was only trying to get me back, “Novus, Novus Hope.”   
God my name is a pun, “My name is Phoebe, and you are?” I turn my head to a small TV almost the size of a phone. I see a young child with vitiligo standing in front of a child that looked just like me,  
The girl smiles and reaches for Phoebe’s hand, “I’m Yanamarie!” I pick up the TV, the child did look like Yana, but who was Phoebe? Why did she look like me? The girls' hands touch and their eyes glow a bright blue. This was Yana’s Soulmate. The TV pauses, then breaks into static, there’s blood on the floor, sobs came from a much older Yanamarie, “Phoebe! Phoebe please wake up! I didn’t mean it! Please..please wake up..” as much as Yana pled the girl didn’t wake up, a tear forms in my eye and drips onto the TV, it felt like an old memory, but one from another time. I don’t know what happened to Yanamarie, but she seems to have been through a lot  
“You can’t tell anyone okay?” brambles appear in my throat hoping this isn’t the memory I remember, I drop that TV and wipe away my tears, as I trot closer the pain slowly disappears and is replaced with deep sadness,  
“Novus why would I tell anyone? You’re my girlfriend, what’s been going on?” Olive Dictus a beautiful fool for ever getting close to me,  
“Trinie, abuses me. Rave’s mother is a nurse who mends my wounds, every single day it’s mental and physical torture, because I’m a Pure Light.” Olive steps back, her eyes well up,  
“Who..who else knows?”  
“The castle, Rave’s family, Liam, that’s about it.” Olive looks around, sighs, then the scene goes black. A scream radiates from the screen, my heart sinks knowing exactly what was happening. The screen begins to lighten, I turn away, closing my eyes, covering my ears, but the sound still came through,  
“Novus, you should’ve told me about your friend, but you lied. I want you to understand that your mistakes have consequences.” Everything was spinning, why this scene, the one I want to forget the most.   
“Novus, Novus! Open your eyes!” Liam’s voice chimes through the room, I listen, the televisions disappear. Liam held my hand and we sat in an empty room. Neither of our eyes glow as he squeezes my fingers,   
“What is this?” he shakes his head, looking around,  
“I think we're asleep. We aren’t actually having contact in the real world so the Soulmate Touch isn’t working.”  
“This doesn't make sense you were just trying to steal my crystal! I saw Yanamarie, she-”  
“Novus, I never wanted to hurt you. You’re my Soulmate, my friend. I didn’t want to betray that trust.”  
“But you did Liam! I can’t forgive you just yet, I understand what happened, but that doesn’t change that it hurt.” Silence. We sat in the room for what seemed to be forever,  
“Yanamarie,” he gulps, “she is being forced to work for the Unspoken, just like me.”  
“What?” Liam’s grip tightens,  
“She was once an Unspoken, but she began to stray from the path they wanted and the original Unspoken no longer trusted her, and branded her.” I pull away from him, my heart skips a beat, but for what reason I didn’t understand,   
“How do you know this? I doubt she would share this information with a slave.”  
“She didn’t. I found her accidentally, after you disappeared for several years. I followed her, and she talked to him. I also know how she feels about you. Her real feelings, not the slave emotions she’s forced to put up.”  
I didn’t want to know, but at the same time there was a longing inside of me that was pulling, grabbing, urging to know how she felt,  
“She wanted me to find the Dispel Chant, not just for Kahn, but for her,” Liam nods, I wanted to leave, to get out and help her, “how long do you think we’ll be stuck here?”  
“I don’t know, strangely I’m not hungry, I don’t feel tired, so I think we’ll be okay until the others find out what's going on.” I reach to clutch my necklace, but the empty void replaced my prying hands. The flood began as the tears dripped like rain drops down my cheeks. Liam held me tightly, and for the first time in several years, I didn’t push him away.


	8. Aphrodite

I close my eyes, allowing the warmth of my room to embrace me. I was stressed, I AM stressed, this world was falling apart and I’m running out of time to save it. My thoughts ran rampt, someone's arms wrap around my waist, resting their head on my shoulder,  
“Cybele, you’re doing an awful job keeping Novus safe you do realize that right?” I sigh, tilting my head pink dreads fall in front of my face, a smirk grows against the beautiful woman’s face, my head shakes,  
“She’s reckless Aphrodite, I can’t stop her from doing what she wants.” She gently moves her wonderful hair out of my face, cupping my face with her warm hands, her mouth opens delicately,  
“Do you think Genitor would be pleased? 247 times you’ve failed, you were so close last time too.” Genitor, the Creator of All, dead. Only for his name to be tossed around as if he was just a human. Younger Gods never knew him, but I did, he entrusted me with this, Aphrodite can’t just spat his name out,  
“Don’t talk about The Father as if he is an object of manipulation, he is dead, the Spatium Creatura were reincarnated, I was put in charge of all of you.” she giggles, her shoulders moved up and down each time,  
“And I was put in charge of creating the image of Crystillians, his favorite race. So why is it you’re letting his people die.”  
“I am not! It is the Unspoken who are causing this! They’re just upset over what we’ve done!” I shouted at her, but she didn’t flinch,  
“You mean what you’ve done. The Crystillians worshipped you all those years ago and it scared you. That’s the reason you did what you did, that’s the reason why every couple generations pain is created.” It wasn’t my fault, it never was my fault!  
“Aphrodite, why are you here. If it is to mock me then I will kindly ask you to leave.” She scoffs grabbing my hand,  
“I’m here to help obviously, I’m tired of hearing how good you’re living. You’re in a human form how good could your life be, I want to help. I want to be in a human form too.” Her eyes sparkle a bright pink, I look away,  
“If I start to accommodate to Gods wants, then everyone will start to be here.” She lightly touches my cheek until our eyes meet,  
“It's just me Bele.” She pouts,  
I pull away from her control, “That’s exactly the problem. It’s you, can you control yourself around Crystillians.”   
Aphrodite squeals, “They’re so cute can you blame me? When you’re the Goddess of Love how can anyone resist me?”  
“What would you do if I let you stay here, how would Novus benefit from you helping her.” Aphrodite huffs walking towards me,  
“I would help her love life obviously. She needs it just being dumped and all.”  
I shake my head, “Novus needs time to herself. She needs to figure out who she truly is. That’s why he dumped her.”   
Her hair seemed to jump up, her face turned deep red, “What?! You mean to tell me the perfect man is good on the inside? What about her Soulmate?” Aphrodite was clueless, clueless of everything,  
“She doesn’t like the ideas of Soulmates. Liam is just a friend that betrayed her.”  
She crosses her arms, “You’re kidding! She’s having a tough time in this reset and she has no one to be with either?” Did she really have no one? All the pupils, all the followers and yet she’s still alone. No, that wasn’t true,  
“Actually, there may be someone that she likes right now.”  
Her eyes light up, “Someone I didn’t put in her path?”  
“Do you know Yanamarie?” Her smile fades, “The young girl that works for the Unspoken Complex.”  
“She was Genitor’s favorite creation, a gift for Phoebe. She was the last creation he made before the illness fell. Why would Novus be interested in someone that is her enemy?”  
Clueless, “Who is Novus’ mother?”  
She pauses, “Eden Hope, she married Aaron Hope they’re so cute. I remember when I made- wait, I didn’t..Eden isn’t organic.”  
“No, she is. She’s made from DNA that Yanamarie stole from her Soulmate.”  
“Eden, is a puppet? Which means, Novus is Yanamarie’s Soulmate?”  
“That is exactly what it means.” Silence, her eyes were no longer bright, she lets go of my hand,  
“Look, Bele, I want to help Novus, but this isn’t for my amusement anymore. I want to investigate, for Father.” Disgusting, she never even knew him,  
“You can’t pull The Father card and expect me to comply with your wishes.”  
“This isn’t a wish anymore. This involves me, because I created Soulmates, and I don’t want someone messing with my pride and joy.” Determination, it was something I hadn’t seen in a God's eyes for centuries,   
“Do you have a name, an identity that you want to take up while being here?”  
“Oh my god yes, this is like my dream come true I can finally have a Humansona, I’m going to be so pretty! So, my name is Hathor, I don’t have my antlers, my hair is half pink, half black.”  
“You’re going too far into this.”  
She huffs, puffing out her cheeks, “I am not! You get to have fun, why can’t I?!”  
“Aphrodite this isn’t for fun, this is serious work that I was trusted with, you had your job too, you just got carried away and supplied enough creations for everyone on Crystillia to have at least 10 children.” she giggles, before taking a deep breath  
“Then please, just let me help. I’m not bored, I’m actually interested in these mortals.”  
“Do you even know what’s going on with Novus currently?”  
“No,” Aphrodite twiddles her thumbs, sucking in a breath, holding something back. She knew something that I didn’t, “I mean, maybe.”  
“Novus became a Watcher of Time, and so did Liam, they share the powers that only one should have. They’re not waking up.”  
“But that’s not,” she pauses, contemplating on what she should say until she mumbles, “that’s not what I saw.”  
“If you saw something, it might help them.”  
“I saw Novus crying on Liam’s shoulder. Their eyes didn’t glow, but they were holding hands. His eyes showed a deep fear, he didn’t say a word to her, but held Novus tightly,” she halts, her eyes glowing trying to find the pair, “It’s an empty room, dark, cold, a prison.”   
“I think we should tell the Pure Lights.”  
“Do you think they’re in the mental state for us to tell them? How do you think they are right now.”  
I shake my head, “Probably terribly? Novus is out of commission, Rave definitely won’t do his job. I wonder what Yanamarie will do. They’ve basically won if the Pure Light’s can’t figure out what to do.”  
Aphrodite touches my shoulder, “Cybele we’re Gods, we make messes, and let the mortals fix it!”  
“No! That’s exactly why Xeno and Yana hate us! We can’t keep doing this!”  
“Doing what?” Aphrodite questions, they don’t understand, none of them do. None of these Gods ever will. They’re nothing like Father.  
“We are supposed to treat Father’s creations with kindness and benevolence. Not screw them over!”  
Aphrodite laughs, my face burns from embarrassment, “But Bele we’re just following you. After all you did cause all of this. This is your mess.”  
“What?”  
She laughs even harder, “You’re the one that set The Son free remember? Then The Son possessed The Original Unspoken who was just a human at that time and that body has been an empty husk for him to rain all hell down on the universe.”  
“I..I set him free? Wait..the First Stella Festival of Crystallia..they were worshipping me. I looked away from the cage.” I cover my mouth in disgust, the world spins and acid burns my throat, I try to grab water, but it only makes the pain worse.  
Aphrodite tilts her head, “Bele, what’s wrong?”  
“This..this..” This is all my fault.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arc 2 Begins :)


	9. Leaders

The crystal barrier falls, the villagers are already evaluated, there was no Unspoken still here. She left in the chaos. Amelia falls to the ground, gasping for air. We were all distracted from the real threat. The fabric from Novus’ dress rips slightly, gaining my attention, Radial is already holding Novus in his arms by the time I look over. Liam laid on the ground holding Novus’ necklace tightly in his hand, Radial spent a while trying to pry off the crown on her head, but it refused to come off. Silence, everyone was silent, so silent the only thing on my mind was Novus’ breathing. That was the only thing I heard, I think that’s the only thing everyone wanted to hear.   
Opal finally moves both Liam and Novus to Infirmary, I followed carrying Novus, Radial followed, still attempting to get the crown off. Opal sighs, “This is too much, it’s almost like a coma, but from magic. I can’t handle this, it’s out of my expertise.” Silence. The other Pure Lights shuffled into the room, and left without saying a word. Opal worked for hours it seemed attempting to find any cause, any cure, anything. The castle was silent. If Novus doesn’t wake up then the Unspoken have already won, I can’t lead, I can only end. End relationships out of fear, end a battle whether I won or not, and now Novus may not even wake up.   
“Rave,” Opal taps my shoulder, “We have guests, and it’s a pretty important trio.” my fingers twitch, I put on my mask and smile,  
“Then let's go.” we trot down the halls, silence. It made my skin crawl, I can’t be a leader. Silence filled the halls even though several guards and maids hurried through. The silence made me feel insane as we came closer to the door, I could feel the tiniest hint of blood entering my mouth from biting too hard,   
“Rave? Are you okay?” I nod my head as the door opens. Two figures walk towards the opening, Kahn comes first, forcing a young man to walk at a much faster pace than him. Then, Amelia’s father walks in, Novus has only been queen for 3 hours and is already bringing races together. Opal bows to Kahn, he gives me a glare,  
“Filthy half breed Demon.” the mask begins to fall, until Amelia’s father towers over me,  
“You know, if you treat a Pure Light as an object they probably won’t help you later on.” Kahn huffs pushing the man forward,  
“This is Caius, he can help bring Novus back. Use him so this doesn’t cause an argument between Tenius and I.” Caius mumbles,  
“Look I..I never said that I can wake her up I just know why she’s asleep.” Tenius sighs,  
“Please, I came because I want to see her. That’s all.” Opal nods showing Tenius the way, Novus has always had a strange connection with the Templums, especially Tenius. He has always cared about her well being, everyone always thought it was strange, but I believe it has to do with her past. Tenius cares because she reminds him of someone.  
“Stop being lost in your thoughts and tell me what happened.” Kahn crosses his arms, Caius looks at me with pure pity,  
“Novus was crowned, and Liam grabbed her necklace, both of them passed out. We’ve spent the last couple hours trying to get the crown off and waking them up.” Caius perks up,   
“They became Watchers of Time. The power was too much for either of them to handle, but they’re okay!” Now I perk up, the mask falls, but I am able to smile without it,  
“Are you saying they’ll wake up? Novus will wake up and be okay?” Caius begins to nod, then stops,  
“Novus, is a different story, she may not wake up-” I don’t remember what I did, but I do remember being pulled away, I think I hit him. I think I was scared. We sat, waiting for answers. Waiting for anything, movement, eyes moving, I would even take her sleep talking. Novus always protected me. I just wanted to return the favor for once. My thoughts went on and on, by the time they were organized it was dark. Opal walks in and sits beside me,  
“You look like crap, but thank you for watching them while I rested.”  
She hands me water and beams,   
“I just want to help in whatever way I can. My mom is a healer so I understand the basics at least.” Opal tilts her head,  
“Your mother is a healer? What’s her name? Maybe I know her. I might even know your father,” My hand twitches, “..Oh, I’m so sorry I didn’t-”  
“It’s okay, most don’t. My mother is Estella Darkest, and my father, Leto Darkest.” Opal flinches this time, Caius walks up behind her seeming, lost almost,  
“Estella? What..what was her maiden name?”   
“I don’t..I don’t remember. It started with an ‘M’ I think?” Caius’ face turns from curiosity to pure joy,  
“Morel. It has to be Morel! I can’t believe it! After all these years I found her.”  
I shake my head, “I’m..sorry, I’m confused.” Caius sits next to me, grinning from ear to ear,  
“Estella, she’s my younger sister. If it’s really her it’ll be crazy.” The room goes silent, I felt the awkwardness climbed up my back,  
“My mother, never mentioned having a brother,” I pause, she never mentioned anything about her past life, and I was dumb enough to never ask, “I lied. I never asked. I never thought to ask. God, this is how I meet my uncle by punching him” Caius smile diminishes slightly,  
“She never mentioned me?” Silence, Opal walks up beside Caius, she smiles,  
“In a way, she did. I’ve heard of Estella from the Angels. Kahn knew her well, mostly because she caused drama with a paradox in time, as did 6 others. So I have a question for you Caius,” His face was pale, his hands twitched slightly,  
“What, what could you possibly ask me.”  
“How old are you and what year were you born.” He pauses,  
“That's easy, I'm 35 and I was born,” he stops hesitating then says, “1980.” His math was wrong, he hesitated, and my mother is 45. A 10 year difference, a time paradox. Opal smirks slightly and her ears twitch,  
“What time are you really from.” He freezes, then sits in a chair next to me, taking a deep breath he says,  
“I was born in 1910. Estella and I are 10 years apart. We lived in Germany. I lived in a town where I fell in love with a woman. She was a Pure Light, she was THE Pure Light of that generation. I fell into a hole, I spiraled, It’s hard to remember much. We were pulled into a warp, I appeared in Crystallia the year 2006. Estella probably appeared in 1996, which explains the time difference. I’m not supposed to be here, and I don’t know where my love is.”  
“What pulled you away from your own time?”  
“I don’t remember. I lost a huge chunk of my memory after I woke up. I remembered my childhood and meeting my love, but not what happened after.”  
“Maybe my mother is the same way. That’s why she never talked about her childhood, but it’s all slowly making sense.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I’m a Crystallian, at least enough to summon objects, but I lived in Germany for 5 years. My mother still speaks German when we’re alone. German was my first language.”  
“I would like to meet her. I need to know if she’s my sister. She was 25 when we were pulled in. How's her husband?”  
“He’s not around anymore.”  
“Oh, I’m sorry, is Estella okay?”  
“I never got to know him, so I wouldn’t know she was already done grieving.”  
“Are you okay?”  
“I’m fine, I just,” pause, “Wish I understood what was going on.”  
Caius tilts his head, “The world has changed for you a lot recently hasn’t it.”  
I chuckle slightly, “You have no idea.” my head pounds, I grab it, voices race around that I’ve never heard before. Then in a second, they’re gone.  
“Rave?” Opal touches my shoulder, I involuntarily flinch, “Maybe you should lay down in the infirmary, you look really pale.”  
“Yeah,” I mumble, “I..haven’t been feeling well recently.” Opal guides me back to the infirmary where Novus and Liam lay, I sit far away, refusing to look at the chaos that has been brought to us.


	10. Yanamarie

The headache vanishes as does his control. I glance up at a young woman standing above me, her arms crossed. The rainbow haired woman snaps her fingers changing into a beautiful form, but it brought me no comfort. I turn away, but she grabs my arm,  
“This isn’t how I would expect us to meet Yana.”  
I sigh, facing her, I put on the mask, “This isn’t how I wanted to meet, Cybele. Did you gain another friend to keep your shop intact? Was it too much for you?”  
Cybele rubs my head, I grimace thinking of how long it took to make it stand only for Bele to ruin it, “Yana, drop the mask. Please, just talk to me. I can break the spell if you want.”  
I have to do this for myself, I can’t let a Goddess just fix my mistakes, “I’m not your child Cybele. Just because your father created me doesn’t mean you have to take care of me.”  
Her hand moves from my head, to my cheek, “I’m not doing this for The Father. I’m doing this for your best interest.”  
I push her away, “My interest? When have you cared? When have you ever cared about my interest? If you cared I wouldn’t be in this predicament. I wouldn’t be forced to-”  
“To kill the girl you love?” Cold, empty, and truthful,  
“I don’t love her. I’m just..interested in her. She’s wonderful, and strong, and beautiful, she looks exactly like my love, but she’s not her, but she’s her own person I-”  
“I’m doing this for your best interest.”  
“How interesting.” We both flinch, the variable.   
My voice cracks, “What do you want?”   
“Yanamarie how many times do I have to tell you? I’m a neutral party. I love the drama, the tears!”  
“Xeno, are you here to rub my defeat in my face, that’s not fair, you don’t even know what my plan was.”  
“Of course I do darling, you wanted Novus’ necklace to become the Watcher of Time and screw us all over. I know how this works. I've been doing it for years now.”  
I pause, smiling slightly, “You’re wrong Xeno.”  
Now he goes silent, “What?”  
“I wanted the necklace to gain Novus’ attention. If you haven’t noticed I’m no longer an official Unspoken,” Why am I telling him this? He’s the one that left me, he doesn’t deserve to know, “Just because you’re a paradox with strange powers doesn’t mean you know every little thing that happens in reality.”  
Cybele smiles, finally understanding, “You want her to dispel the mark.”  
Longing, warmth builds up inside me, “I want more than that. I don’t want to be a Slave to the Unspoken Complex anymore, I want to help her, be beside her.”  
Xeno’s mask partially falls, “Why would you care now?”  
The memory wells up again, I clutch my arm, “Novus died in my arms last reset. I watched the Unspoken I picked for the 247th time kill her. So I’m stalling, acting like the insane bitch when he’s listening and trying to help Novus when he’s not.”  
It drops even more, he’s confused, I’m confusing the variable, “You’re lying. I’ve been on both sides, I’ve seen what you do and what Novus does. You just think we’re having a party, oh shall I bring my tequila and popcorn for the next reset?”  
Cybele no longer is focusing on me, she walks towards him, “Xeno, that’s enough. You’re going too far.”  
“Look Miss All Powerful Goddess, you and Aether are the reason why I’m stuck in this mess with no way out so pardon me dearly if I hurt your wittle feelings.” Xeno pushes me against the stone wall, the venom raises, but I push it down, I take a deep breath and for once in my life I face the truth I couldn’t for thousands of years,  
“Novus is my Soulmate,” Xeno’s grip loosens, “When she died in the last reset, she touched my cheek and our eyes glowed.”  
Cybele crosses her arms, looking as if she already knew, “Yana, does the Orginal know?”  
“Yes. And that’s why-” The Orginal’s voice rings in my head,  
“Yanamarie what are you doing associating yourself with a God and a nuisance. I wanted you to find a new Unspoken host. If you don’t tell me-” The world spins, I feel sick, Cybele grabs my arm,  
“Yana, don’t listen to him!” Her voice was overtaken by him,   
“Novus will die and never come back.” A threat, and a chance that I couldn't take. My breath stiffens, I fall grabbing my head, calling out the new Unspokens name, waking him up,  
“Ya..Yashiro! His name is Yashiro!” My heart drops to my stomach, someone grabs my shoulder,   
“What have you done?” Cybele shouts, the voice rings even louder,  
“I guess you are a traitor, I have no more use for you.” My chest hurts, I feel powerless. Xeno grabs my arm,  
“I’m taking you to the castle, Novus can help you.”  
The world fell dark, I unleashed the new Unspoken, it was all my fault, Novus is going to die,  
“Xeno! Is that the Unspoken?” Raisa looks at me, I glance around, it felt so cold, I felt so scared,  
“This priss right here woke up the Unspoken.” He loosened his grip causing me to fall and hit the ground. I look up powerless, Raisa stares in disbelief,  
“Rave is sick, an immense amount of Darkness hit the castle, he passed out.”  
“Well at least we don’t have to worry about his bickering ‘Novus is hurt, I’m so great, Xeno stop copying me” Everything begins to blur, my magic has never been taken from me, and it hurts. The guards picked me up escorting me to a cell, the world spun. Opal rushes around the halls, I see one of her and suddenly there’s two, three, one, four, two that is touching my cheek,  
“You did...to..vus,” Opal’s voice echoes, “She’s fasc..with you, I.. just leave..to die, but,” one Opal stood before me healing my wounds, my eyelids weren’t as heavy, “It’s against my code of morals, and Novus needs to question you.” Opal waves her hand off and I’m being dragged again,  
“What are you carrying? I sense no magic from that being.” Amelia stopped before me. The guard looks down,  
“It’s a..the Unspoken.” He waves my arm around,  
“I can feel the air, but you do realize I can’t actually see her right,” Amelia bends down summoning a crystal, blood drips slightly from her hand, “I shouldn’t do this, but I want to be able to see you, and you can’t help Novus with no magic.” The crystal floats into my hands, the guards flinch, the crystal absorbs into my skin, I felt light radiating from my skin,  
“Thank you.” Amelia smiles,  
“Trust your instincts Yanamarie.” Amelia walks off, she left me with a bitter taste, instincts, I didn’t like her. I can now stand, but the guards still held me. Radial walks by, he stops smirking slightly,  
“Hello Yanamarie. I didn’t think it was so easy to bring down the mighty Unspoken,” I don’t answer, “I can take her.” The guards loosen their grip nodding,  
“Why are you all doing this, Opal healed me, Amelia gave me magic, and now you’re escorting me.” Radial grins, but pauses for a great while,  
“We are a family. Even with all of our differences we help each other. Novus, likes you. We’re hoping that slowly you’ll be able to join us once she wakes up.”  
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want that to happen. The Original took away his control for now, but if he finds a use for me I’ll be dangerous.” Radial doesn’t answer, he seemed lost in thought, then he beams,  
“Come with me to the Infirmary. If you can wake up Novus then I won’t let them take you to the dungeon. I’ll try to find a cure for this darkness, and you’ll be my guinea pig.”  
A chance that Novus may wake up, a chance this curse will go away, I would trade anything to have a chance. My head bows, Radial takes my hand, the world twists and turns, then suddenly I’m in front of Novus. Her skin was ivory and glass like, for a moment, her eyes would flutter and I would see the two different colors her irises were painted with. All I could do was stare, relish in the moment, I wasn’t hurting her, she was here next to me with no hatred between us. I briskly touch her fingers, her eyes open glow bright blue, just like the last time she touched my cheek,she winces grabbing my arm, she struggles to move, but produces two words out of her mouth as Liam truly did wake up,   
“Yashiro’s..coming.”


	11. Crack and Snap

Novus falls back, once again asleep, Yanamarie stood above her, holding where they held hands. She shook and fell to the ground crying. Opal rushes in with the others quickly behind her.  
“Radial what happened?!” Opal touches Novus’ head and sighs,  
“I experimented.” Rave pushes through to the best of his ability he huffs stumbling onto a nearby bed,  
“Radial what did you do,” All the Pure Lights stare at me wanting answers rather than looking at the facts themselves. Rave was no exception, you could see the sweat drenching his face. The darkness that was unleashed from Yashiro was too much for his body, he was ill and needed to rest, “Radial what did you do?!” I look at Rave,  
“I..I did what I had to,” the room becomes silent, I hear a crack, crack, crack, knuckle cracking. Knuckle cracking doesn’t cause arthritis, it is however a coping mechanism for anxiety and OCD, Crack, crack, crack, Opal grabs my hand, the cracking was me. She rubs my fingers and smiles,  
“Radial, Liam is awake, did Novus wake up before I came in?” There was a stimuli, Novus and Yanamarie touched causing The Soulmate’s Touch she woke up briefly and said two words,  
“She did..She woke up, said Yashiro’s coming and fell back to sleep.” My thoughts are running so fast, it’s hard to distinguish what is important and what is causing me more stress. Rave stiffens, becoming as ivory as Novus. He opens his mouth,  
“I..I can’t be a leader. That’s Novus’ job..this..god why did this happen..” He rambles, and rambles becoming more upset as he speaks. We are a mess, all of us. Do they see it as much as I do? Do they not want to say anything? I don’t want to be the first one then look like an idiot because no one else believes the same thing, “Liam why did you have to wake up?! Why couldn’t it have been Novus! This isn’t fair!” Everyone flinches, Opal lets go of my hands, at a slow pace she whispers into Rave’s ear. His trembling ceases, but his breath remains the same, raspy, incomplete. We sat in silence. Opal made Rave lay down and take medication, he didn’t deny her. Liam sat staring at all of us,  
“Liam how do you feel, we should still do some tests, give me a second I’ll get the tools.” He flinches,  
“I don’t want any tests. I want to talk to one person, Radial.” Crack, crack, crack,  
“Why do you want to talk to me?”  
“You brought that bitch here. She’s the reason Novus isn’t awake. She’s the reason, and you brought her here. You did this, and now Novus hates me! This is all your fault Yanamarie!” He lunged at her and Rasia pulls back Yanamarie.  
“He’s corrupted. I..I corrupted him. I’m so sorry..sorry.”   
“Can anyone purify the corruption?”  
Everyone sighs collectively, “Novus.” Rave’s head bobs up, he looks tired, much more calm.  
“I can.”  
“Rave you’re not physically or mentally well I don’t think you should-”  
“No, It’s okay I’ll be fine. It’s just a bit of magic.” Deafening silence, I could finally think. This is why I prefer my lab. Opal guides Rave beside Novus and Liam, he takes Liam’s hand, in response Liam flinches. Rave begins to mumble, lights swirl around his hands, a spell. A spell that I didn’t know, a spell that mother didn’t teach both of us, the room grows in light, until it slowly diminishes, and Rave weakly pulls his hands away,  
“Where did you learn that spell?” I questioned Rave, his body shook as he stood, our eyes meet, but Rave wasn’t there.   
“I just picked it up, Radial, you can do things that I cannot, just let me have this one thing.” His eyes dart to the left, looking down at Yana instead of me,  
“Why are you lying to me? I just want to know, It took years for Novus to learn the purification skill.” His legs move towards the door, he regains eye contact with me,  
“Radial, quit psychoanalyzing me or whatever you’re doing. Do your job and find a way to wake Novus up.” Rave uncrosses his arms, but continued to pick at them,  
“I’m doing my job. Finding out our weaknesses are and improving them with my technology or tell Opal for therapy.” This gains Opal’s attention, her posture drops, she’s uncomfortable,  
Rave grabs my arm, he huffs, “That isn’t your job!” Something pulls me, something snaps, I pull my arm back, Rave tumbles back, gathering everyone's attention, making my head spin,  
“What am I supposed to do Rave? My whole life is a mess! Novus told me what to do, I’m doing what I was told to do! You are not! You’re not doing anything you’re supposed to do!” Crack, crack, snap, and silence. I bite my lip until the slight taste of blood slips in. The room closes in, Opal touches my finger and the pain floods down my arm. Silence, unbearable silence. The world twists and turns, Everything goes silent and I’m no longer in the infirmary, but in my lab, right next to the Crystal of Light. It shone brightly giving me a headache. That’s when it started, the tears began to pour. I didn’t mean it, I didn’t mean anything that I said. My head hurt, my finger burned as well as my throat.   
“Radial.” Our eyes meet, Raisa smiles at me, it was a pity smile. The type a mother gives when a child had a bad day at school. She walks up to me, taking the hand that wasn’t throbbing.  
“Don’t look at me like that.” Her head tilts,  
“Like what?” She rubs my hand, the gloves were silk, it was soothing,  
“Like I’m a child. Like I did something bad, Rave’s an asshole.” Raisa laughs slightly allowing her fiery hair to drift in front of her eyes,  
“I’ve heard horror stories about siblings, but you can’t blame him. Novus is the one person he grew up with that wasn’t a sibling, plus the darkness affected him.” Such a strange excuse, why did the darkness affect Rave and not us anyway? I stare at Raisa, her pity smile still carried into our conversation. A chuckle bubbles up and escapes my mouth, I pull away.  
“Who sent you, they want me to come back don’t they.”   
“I want you to come back. Don’t let them bully you, get your finger wrapped, take Yanamarie, and find a way to bring Novus back. That is what you’re good at.” Raisa’s voice rambles on, I get lost in my own thoughts. With Yanamarie as a Guinea Pig there’s so much we could learn, we could learn about Soulmates, about the Unspoken. I could bring Novus back. Without realizing my lips curl,  
“I think I know what we need to do.”  
Raisa smiles, “What? Tell me!” I run over to my desk slightly tripping on the same rock I always do, she follows me and looks around, “Radial just tell me what you need.”  
“Can you get me Yanamarie?”   
She pauses, then nods her feet and turns towards the steps, but not completely before she blows air in my direction with her hand. I tilt my head and she giggles running upstairs. It took me about a minute to realize she had blown me a kiss, my face begins to burn, but I shake it off and sit down at my lab table, 5 minutes later Yanamarie runs down the steps, “I’m..I’m sorry it took me so long..”  
“Nonsense you were recovering from a slight mental breakdown. You are fine.”  
She walks over, keeping her distance, but watching me work, “Do you know how to wake her up?”  
“Possibly. What do you think about using her Soulmate Touch?”  
She tilts her head, “Um I don’t understand.”  
I wave my hand over, she walks closer, “Then let me explain it to you.”


	12. Ultima

Liam lets go of my hand, the warmth escapes and I’m replaced with the chill of loneliness. My eyes begin to glow and Liam disappears, I close my eyes trying to make the glow disappear, someone taps me on the shoulder, I glance up and see a young woman smiling,   
“Who are you?”  
“I would ask you the same thing if I haven’t been stuck in here for years.”  
“Where..is here?”  
“Your head, can’t you tell? Haven’t you seen your own memories, seen your own way to cope? You’re just seeing what you want.”  
“That can’t be, Liam was just here and I felt his hand, I felt his warmth.”  
“Or did you want someone to be next to you and comfort you, without The Soulmate Touch.”  
“I didn’t come here for more questions, I wanted them answered! Who are you?”  
“My name is Ultima,” She takes a step towards me, the room lights up revealing a small room. I knew this room, though I tried to forget, “Do you remember me? Do you remember anything about this, how we met, how I became stuck in here,” I shake my head, trying to forget, trying not to bring the memories back, “It’s okay, they can’t hurt you here.” The world shook around us, my balance loosened and I fell into Ultima’s warm arms. I opened my eyes, the view changed. We stood in a child’s room, the bed was pink with frills covering the bottom. A small doll house quietly creaked as a young child with shaggy brown hair tip toed, opening the doll-house. Her arms covered in gauzes, blood soaking through her left side. The child was me. Dolls laid gently in her bruised hands, the child smiles slightly,  
“Mother says I can’t play with toys anymore. I’m 7, I’m a grown-up now, I don’t feel very grown up.” A sniffle, a hiccup, and then the tears pour,  
My face clenches, and I turn away,“ I can’t watch this.” Ultima stands still, watching the child, the crying became louder as the pain in her body grew, the bandages soaking and dripping,  
“This is the first time Trinie experimented with you,” Ultima said, “she finally found how to channel your light and attempted to extract it.”  
“I know what this is!” I shout, Ultima squeezes my hand, wiping tears from my face,  
“But it’s more than that,” The child’s wimpers begin to diminish, a woman holds her, a woman with the same frosty hair as Ultima. The woman whispers into the child’s ear, she sniffs slightly nodding gently. A bright flash clouds my vision, when it clears the child was asleep on her bed, new bandages, and a smile on her face, “This was the moment that I saved you. The reason why you aren’t waking up, the reason why you can’t remember the worst moments with Trinie.”  
“You’re the reason why I’m not waking up?”   
Ultima nods, “That would be correct. I’m holding you back, because of your trauma. You’re subconsciously scared that if you wake up you’ll get hurt again.”   
“That isn’t subconscious. I know I’m scared.” I mumble,   
“Novus I’ve been with you longer than either of us can comprehend. You’ve helped me, and I’ve helped you a lot, but I’m going to help you one last time before we leave.”  
“How can you do that? You’re not helping me you’re just-”  
She interrupts me, “No more visions. I’m going to bring someone to you.”  
“How can you do that?”  
“They’re asleep. Everyone in the castle except Radial, who was working with Yanamarie.”  
“Yana?”  
Ultima smiles sadly , “Surprise.”  
“Wait, I’m not ready to-” Ultima snaps her fingers and the world shifts, we’re standing in front of the Crystal of Light. Radial sat in his chair mumbling and twirling his pencil, Yana laid down on an air mattress, fast asleep. Peaceful. Beautiful. Ultima snaps her fingers once again, Yana jolts up, her body still on the bed, her spirit awake,  
“Hello Yanamarie.” Ultima said coldly, Yana’s posture changes, she slinks down, looking guilty almost.  
“Why are you doing this to me again? It wasn’t me, it was-”  
“Him. I know that now. I’m not here to scorn you, someone else needs you.”   
Yana turns her head, our eyes meet. She stares me down, takes a deep breath,  
“I don’t want to talk to her.”   
Ultima grabs Yana’s arm, she flinches,  
“She wants to talk to you.”   
Silence, no one makes a move. Awkward and unbearable. Until Yana takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and says, “I’m sorry,” she walks beside me, examining my body, then I remembered I still wore my crowning dress, “I really do love this dress.”  
“It’s uncomfortable,” I mumble, “but thank you.”   
Yana smiles, her arm wraps around my waist, magic flows through her hand and the outfit changes, a hoodie and jeans, comfortable.   
“You’ve been asleep for a week now. No one knows what to do. I don’t know what to do, I didn’t want any of this to happen, I just want you-” she stops, her face drops and she bites her lip, “I want you to wake up so I can apologize properly.”  
A lie, truthful in one way, something deeper underneath, “If you didn’t want me to get hurt, then why follow the orders of the Unspoken.” I ask,   
Yana pauses, “I had no choice, he can possess those weak to darkness, I’m hardly ever awake around him, but not anymore. I’m free from his control and I can help you!”  
“How can I trust you? How do we know you won’t turn on us when I let you roam around.”  
Yana moves towards my hand, hesitates, then crosses her arms, “I’m tired, tired of him. All the pain that has been caused over these realities. Let me make up for it, by being right next to you.”   
We both stop, there is an awkward pause, “Rave asked me what I needed. I’m still not sure what he means by that, gods I don’t even know what I want Yana.”  
She touches my hands reluctantly, I can feel the warmth, or at least I think I can, “Novus, what’s important right now is that you need to wake up. Then we can figure out what you need or want.”  
“We?” I say, hope brimming though my words  
“We. You and me. Please just trust me, I’m not like The Original Unspoken. I’m mortal, I have feelings too. I promise I won’t hurt you again.”  
I move back, pulling my hands away from her, the woman Phoebe appears in my head again, I whisper her name, Yana’s head pops up, fear strikes it, she knows the name, “Phoebe.”  
“S..Stop..Don’t..don’t say her name.” Yana covers her ears, she starts to panic. Thorns grab my feet stopping me from helping her,  
“Y..Yana I’m sorry I didn’t mean it.”  
She takes a couple deep breaths before she calms down, “Please..don’t talk about her..how do you even..oh”  
“I won’t, I won’t talk about her again, I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”  
She begins laughing, “I should be the one asking for forgiveness Princess.” silence, “will you trust me if I forgive you?”  
Silence, Radial sat tinkering at his table, it filled the silence, until we both stare at him, Radial bangs down his hammer, on one of his fingers, he shouts in pain and bites his lip, Yana’s body flickers, she was waking up, “Yana, I want to trust you, I..I think I do, but I feel like.”  
“Like we’ve met before?” she smiles, “princess you have no idea. I forgive you.”  
And in a blink, she was gone. Her body jolts up and she’s tending to Radial, but I couldn’t hear them. I couldn’t hear Ultima. I was stuck, in the limbo of confusion with the Crystal of Light floating above me and my sinful thoughts.


	13. Ocean of Anxiety

30 minutes after Radial pushed Rave, he was still on the floor. An hour after Opal checked my vitals again Rave refused to leave. Two hours after everyone had fallen asleep, I stayed awake reading, Rave stayed awake on a medical bed writing. Now at 3 in the morning the unbearable silence was getting to me. Novus laying in a comatose has more peace than Rave has in this moment, he constantly cleaned his reading glasses, cracked his knuckles, he clicked his pen, either attempting to create noise out of silence or simply to annoy me. Click, click, click, pause, “Do you intend to cause me to become corrupt again?”   
Click, sigh, “No, I’m sorry. I do it subconsciously when I’m uncomfortable,” Silence again. I go back to reading, in a way I’m hoping to find answers for Novus. Something to wake her up, I glance over to Rave who was still writing away, then he stops, “Liam, how does it feel when Novus freaks out when your skin touches?”  
I put my book down and stare at him, what the hell does that mean? I pause, “What?”  
“I just want to hear your thoughts from your perspective.”  
“Gods..um,” I sigh, “it kinda sucks. Some people spend their whole life looking for Soulmates for me to have mine right next to me, and in the end she doesn’t love me.”  
He nods his head writing down what I said, “But what about a platonic relationship? Soulmates don’t have to love each other. What about the Soulmates that kill each other because they don’t want the burden?”  
“That’s their fault,” I say quickly, “we were intended to be lovers, at least, that’s what I think.”  
Rave laughs to himself, “We don’t know what the original intention of Soulmates is. Just because you think you know isn’t always the right answer.”   
I roll my eyes, “What are you saying.”  
“What if we have multiple Soulmates, but we don’t know it. What if Soulmates travel from different realities?”  
“So you think, somewhere in the worlds there could be a Rave, and there could be a Liam that are Soulmates, even if we hate each other in this reality.”  
“It is a possibility,” He says softly, what the hell is wrong with him? For the next 30 minutes the silence came back and then click, click, click, “Liam.”  
“What now.”  
“What if you could talk to Novus through a vision?”  
My attention is caught, I fully set down my book and face him, “Explain.”  
He stops and chews the top of his pen for a moment, “Novus was able to communicate with others when she had visions. Of course they were only auditory, I’m not sure now that she is a full Watcher, but now you are too and you could communicate with Novus I just-”  
I cut him off, “I’ll do it.”  
“What?” he stares at me waiting for a reply, but I didn’t have one,  
“I said I’ll do it.”  
He doesn’t wait for me to back out, instead he takes off his glasses and walks over to me, “I don’t know how to trigger visions other than stress.”  
“Don’t tell me you idiot, just do it.”   
Rave takes a deep breath, “Did you know the chances of finding your Soulmate are about 1 and 10,000? You found yours and she doesn’t even love you,” Not exactly stressful, he continues, “there are several alternative realities that we have all lived through, but not all of us remember, that means every time you less likely to find Novus,” that’s a little hurtful, “I’ve known you since we were children,” I didn’t know him, “we had conversations, you and Novus discovered each other we were all friends,” I don’t remember this, “and then you were murdered.”  
“What?”  
He doesn’t stop, he paces around the room, “Novus’ adopted mother, murdered you for being her Soulmate because she didn’t want Novus to be tainted. Yet here you are.”  
“Rave what are you talking about?”  
He looked at me and it looked as if he smiled, “Haven’t you ever wondered why Novus automatically knew you were her Soulmate?”  
A pounding headache came, I clutch my head as memories attempted to come through, but it’s too much, too much to remember at once, I close my eyes, and I realize the hum of the Infirmary was gone. It was pure silence,  
“Liam?” Novus' voice has always been calming to me, she has always tried her best to comfort me even when I hurt her, “Liam!” I suppose I want to hear her voice to make sure she’s okay. She's the only one that ever accepted me despite my flaws, “Liam open your damn eyes!”  
She’s actually here. I open my eyes and Novus stood before me, a woman in which I didn’t know stood beside her, “So this is Liam.”  
“Liam what are you doing here? Are you getting visions?”  
Nothing made sense, Novus kneels beside me, I stare at her forgetting what my original task was, “Novus, how did you know we were Soulmates?”  
“What are you talking about? We’ve known each other since we were kids.”  
I shake my head, “I don’t, I met you when we were teens, on Earth.”  
Novus stares at me, “I met Raisa on Earth not you.”  
The deafening silence was too much to bear, so many thoughts rushed through my head, Novus stared at the ground, it was too quiet. “Interesting,” the woman mumbles, “Liam, how much do you remember of your past?”  
“I..remember being a child, then something happened when I was a teenager, I don’t remember..I woke up and met Novus on Earth.”  
Novus tilts her head, “What happened while on Earth if I may ask?”  
“You lost your memory, you thought you were human,” Novus nods her head agreeing, “Rave and I knew you weren’t, you hated Rave. Then Iris came,” Novus flinches, “Where is Iris? She was with us.”  
“Liam, Iris is dead, she sacrificed herself for Raisa”  
“No..no she isn’t! She’s not dead! Raisa and Iris, they were together and they had a relationship!”  
“They did,” Novus says, “but Iris decided to give that up, so her lover would survive.”  
“That’s..that’s why she hates Soulmates.”  
Novus nods, it was all coming together, but still made no sense. Raisa hates Soulmates because the one she loves died. That’s why Iris isn’t here, that’s why no one has ever talked about her, it’s too painful. All of the thoughts rushed together, it became hard to breathe, but I refused to show it. I just stared into the distance, everything I’ve known is wrong. What part of my memory was correct? I didn’t know. I didn’t want to know. We sat in silence, until I felt something wet at my feet, my eyes glance up, water, “Novus, do you see that?”  
“Water? Water. Liam you’re stressing yourself out. In your vision when you become too stressed your body has a reaction to wake you up, or kill you.”  
“What?!” The room starts to fill faster than before, Novus grabs the young woman’s arm who looks at me,  
“Liam, you came here for a purpose! What was it?”  
I remember, “How do we wake you up? Novus everything is going wrong! Please just tell me!”  
Novus doesn’t say a word, the young woman she clung to sighs, “A man named Caius, tell him to ask Radial about the puppet research. I don’t know where he is though that’s all I can say.”  
The water begins to rise above our chest, Novus’ chin was already under the water, she was panicking, “Caius, he’s at the castle. I heard Rave punched him!”  
“I wouldn’t be surprised!” The woman shouted, “tell him Ultima misses him.” Novus was under the water, the woman barely staying afloat,  
“What do I do?!” The woman smiles, then she falls under the water, as did I. Novus struggled holding her breath, I close my eyes and shout, “Stop!”  
“I haven’t said anything for the past hour?” Rave’s voice gave me a sigh of relief, I open my eyes and I sat in the Infirmary once again. My body showed no signs of being wet, and the sunset rose above shining bright in my eyes. It was morning, and I knew how to bring Novus back.


	14. Flashbacks

*PTSD WARNING*

Radial and I sit in the Infirmary. Liam had called everyone saying he knew a way to wake Novus up. We were the first to come, that was a mistake. I’m uncomfortable as hell. Everyone’s eyes are on me, glaring resentment, “I didn’t ask Yanamarie to come. Just you Radial.” Liam says causing the mood to drop even more,  
Radial opens his mouth in which I cover my head,“I suppose that means you don’t know that Yanamarie and Novus are Soulmates if you don’t want her here.”  
“I’m sorry?” Rave looks over, his attention now caught as well. Suffocating and embarrassing, “you have to be joking. I’m her Soulmate not her.” Then Liam pauses, he looks at Rave who goes back to reading, then he looks at me, “I see.”  
Silence fills the room, Radial stares at the wall then looks at me, “Did I say something wrong?”  
“No,” I murmur, “I just don’t want everyone to know, especially Novus.”  
“I understand,” He says, “Finding your Soulmate is an emotional connection. Considering how Novus reacts around Liam I understand why you don’t want her to know,” Radial smiles, “Don’t worry, you tell her when you’re ready.”  
I smile and the mood lifts, slowly the Pure Lights walk in bringing Caius with them. He pauses when our eyes meet, the glare of resentment causes my body to curl, Rave taps my shoulder, “I punched him when I first met him. I’m sure whatever happened between you two isn’t that bad.”  
I lean over towards his bed and whisper, “It is, trust me.”   
Caius sits next to Liam on the other side of Novus, “I was told you know why she’s asleep,” Liam nods, “did you see her? What did she say?”  
There’s a pause, the pressure of the room made it hard to breathe, “She said,” Liam takes a deep breath, “Tell him, Ultima misses him.”  
Caius lets his guard down for only a moment, a tear trickles down his cheek and we could all breathe. Everything built up inside of me burst, “I saw them too,” everyone turns to me. Caius' face turns beat red, “I saw them in my dream.”  
“You don’t have the right to see Ultima after what you did.”   
I stand up, the chair falls, “It wasn’t my fault! You think I wanted to see Ultima or Novus after what I’ve done? They chose to see me. Not you.”  
Caius stands up coming face to face, “That’s a lie! Ultima would never forgive you! You killed everyone!”  
“That wasn’t me! It was him! Face it Caius, she forgave me and you need to get over yourself!” I went too far. Caius grabs my shirt and pushes me down, I grab Novus’ arm and our eyes glow a bright blue. I begin to drag her down, Rave catches me. On the other side Liam grabs Novus arm to keep her from falling, his eyes glow bright yellow. Novus’ eyes glow a bright green, I close my eyes. Novus lays in my arms, Rave held both of us on the ground. The room goes silent,   
Radial smiles and claps his hands together, “That’s it! I knew it! The Soulmate touch is more than just simply telling if you’re Soulmates, it has powers.”  
Caius mumbles under his breath and walks over to me towering, “You can say you’ve changed, but you’ve only been out of his control for a week. I know what you’ve done before you even worked for the Unspoken. I know what you did to her.”   
My body goes numb, flashes come back from a time I thought I forgot. Novus’ touch no longer calmed me, an overwhelming sadness hit my body like a tidal wave. I’m drowning, drowning in memories I didn’t want to remember. Goosebumps up and down my body, chills going down my spine, I clutch my arms and brace myself attempting to take deep breaths, the world closes in around me. Her, my first love, my Soulmate. I see her body on the floor, not moving once again. Everyone was laughing at me, I couldn’t hear it, but I could tell, I look pathetic. I hear a voice crawling up my neck and into my ears, “What did you do to her?”  
“Killed..she..her body..I didn’t..I didn’t..I DIDN’T MEAN IT!”   
I’m pulled back into reality, someone held my hand a bright calming blue, “It’s not real Yana. You’re safe, you’re in the infirmary,” Novus’ voice rings through my ears. Novus, who looks exactly like my love, exactly like her. The room becomes tighter, “I’m not Phoebe.”  
Phoebe and Novus. Novus and Phoebe, that’s right. They’re not the same. Two different people, different lives. This is different, I’m safe, safe with Novus in my arms. The area grows, I’m in the infirmary again.Novus was no longer in my arms but laid on her bed, everyone stared at me. Caius was gone, Opal stood waiting for me, “You’re okay now. You’re in the infirmary. Whatever you saw isn’t real.”  
My voice wavered it’s sore and scratchy, “Novus..Novus..I heard,” Rave hovers his hand over mine, being careful not to make contact,  
“Novus woke up, she woke up and started talking to you.” He says,  
“She’s awake?” I ask,  
Rave sighs, “She’s fading in and out. Radial is convinced it’s because of Liam and you.”   
“It has to be!” Radial says, “When you’re ready I would love to try my experiment.”  
Liam crosses his arms facing away from all of us he huffs until Opal sighs and faces him, “Yes Liam?”  
“I don’t understand why Yanamarie is getting all the attention. She just freaked out didn’t she? Novus is actually sick right?”  
My body shivers, Rave stands up, “That’s not fair Liam.”  
Rave strides over to Liam towering over him. Liam looked up slowly, “What, gonna give me a lecture?”  
“No, I’m telling you reality,” He’s now on Liam’s level, sitting on his bed, Liam scoots to the corner of his bed keeping a distance, “Liam, just because you can’t see an illness doesn’t mean it’s not there. Yana, has been touched by the Unspoken’s influence and has trauma. Working with Opal and my mother have taught me that trauma or a mental illness is just as important as a visible illness.”  
Opal smiles to herself, I look around the room and that’s when I noticed the look of concern washed over all the Pure Light’s faces. Liam laughs, “Yanamarie isn’t a perfect human being! She’s killed people, she’s hurt people! I’m not working with her.”  
“I didn’t say she was perfect,” the cold truth, “but she’s working on it. None of us are perfect humans. I lash out when I’m scared, Radial shuts himself out, it’s not healthy, but at least we know it’s not and are working on it. You’re not perfect Liam, so get the hell over yourself and help bring Novus back.”   
Overwhelming silence, Novus giggles in her sleep causing Liam’s face to turn red from embarrassment, “Did she hear you?”  
“If she did,” Rave says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she was laughing at you.”   
Everyone shifts allowing Rave to move back into another medical bed that held his book warm, he smiles picking up the book, placing a worn bookmark onto his desired page, he pauses noticing my stares. Closes the book and helps me off the ground, our eyes meet an overwhelming light shines, I move back rubbing my hands, “Thank you, though I don’t understand why you would stand up for me.”  
“I’m not sure honestly. I feel like I should be pissed at you for hurting Novus, but there’s something deep down telling me to trust you. Same for Radial I suppose.”  
I look at Radial who hid in the corner when the arguing started, Raisa sat beside him smiling at me, “Radial,” I say, “I want to try and wake Novus up.”  
His face perks up like a puppy being offered treats, he runs up clapping his hands together, “Wonderful! We’ll just force Liam if he doesn’t want to help.”  
“No,” Liam grumbles, standing up from his bed, “I’ll help.” Liam makes eye contact with Rave who smiles, Liam rolls his eyes and offers his hand to Radial, I do as well. Radial shakes his head pointing to Novus.  
I slowly pick up Novus’ hand, our eyes glow a bright blue, calming, but sad. Liam takes her other hand and for a moment I felt an overwhelming sense of cowardice. His eyes shine yellow. Novus shifts her eyes open glowing a bright green, she winces. Everyone shouts her name, she moves back holding onto our hands tightly. Radial and Opal move forward, Radial touches her chin and he asks everyone to look away. I close my eyes, but I can feel Novus’ nail digging into my skin, it burns. She doesn’t say anything, but the pain was easy to identify and then, she let go. I hear a thud as her head hits the bed, I open my eyes and Radial is gone. Novus giggles, everyone looks at her in anticipation, “Get the hell over yourself, Rave you know Liam’s a pretty boy he can’t do that!”  
Everyone sighs finally being able to breathe, Liam’s face turns bright red, he mumbles and sits on his bed, everyone greets Novus welcoming her, I stand in the back watching her. Wanting to say something, but unable to. The guilt wraps me until the rope is around my neck, choking me, but being cruel enough to let me stay and watch. Everyone leaves, I stay. Radial comes in and begins to take me away from the guilt and then, the guilt speaks, “Yana, I want to talk, for real this time.”  
Radial shakes his head telling her to take time and recover, I look at the guilt, smile, and say, “Not now, princess.”


	15. Yashiro

“Yana, please let me talk to you again.” Yana scoffs and faces Radial,   
“We already talked and remembered why we need to talk again. You’re awake and that’s all that matters.” Radial and I connect eyes. Silence, but you could tell he was annoyed that I was interrupting his experiments.  
“Yana-”  
Radial groans, “Novus, you are still recovering. We don’t know how your body will react to your new powers, please go lay down and let me work.” Yana nods, I twiddle my thumbs before finally leaving his lab. The world seemed different now, everything was silent, nothing seemed right. What happened while I was gone? Rave was supposed to take over. He probably freaked out, everyone went into a panic. Now I’m awake, I'm the queen and everyone is waiting for me to make a move. Yana and I talked while in my head, there was something, something there she refused to tell me. I want to know her, I want her to talk to me again, I want-  
“Princess,” Yana, “Oh, well I guess you’re queen now aren’t you?”  
“Princess is fine. As long as you talk to me.” Yana doesn’t smile, her eyes trace down to her shoes she sighs,  
“Look Princess, it might be awhile before I’m able to tell you my whole story. I will though, okay?”   
I nod, the world falls silent. We stood awkwardly next to each other, I couldn’t tell if she wanted me to talk, or if she was trying to find the right words, “Yana-”  
“Why do you trust these Pure Lights?” she spurts out, scaring both of us. Amelia walks by waving at the both of us. Yanamarie stares uncomfortably then smiles at Amelia. She didn’t trust her,  
“What’s wrong? Did Amelia say something? I..I can talk to her!” the words came out rapidly, like I had no control over my own mind,  
“I just,” Yana says, interrupting my words, “want to know why you trust each of them so much.”  
Silence again, who do I trust? I close my eyes allowing the words to take over, “I’ve known Rave, Radial, Liam, and Opal since we were all children we went to school together. They never keep anything from me, we’re all extremely close.”  
I hear Yana laugh slightly, I open my eyes to find her staring intently at me, smiling, “Well go on, how about Raisa and Amelia.”   
I close my eyes before the heat rises to my cheeks, “Raisa, saved me. When I was younger, I was on Earth. I completely lost my memory.”  
“Because of the Demon rebellion, I remember that well. He didn’t even know such a thing would happen.” Yanamarie sighs  
Even with my eyes closed, I could feel us becoming closer, our arms were interlocked. She held my arm with an intensity, I could feel the longing. She didn’t want to let go, I continued, “Raisa brought me to Rave, and then,” I squeeze Yana’s arm, my mind trying to forget, but my body refusing, “Kito.”   
She becomes stiff, she knows what he did, “Princess you don’t have to talk about him. In fact, don’t talk about him. What happened after you left Daemon?”   
Now my head laid on her shoulder, her hair drifting across my face, “I ran away, leaving Rave, leaving Kito, and met Tenius, he introduced me to Amelia,” I pause, how much did I actually know about Amelia? I know more about Tenius than her, I’m closer to Tenius than I am her, “Amelia showed remarkable signs of light. I assumed, she was a Pure Light.” I assumed.  
“You assumed?” I did, “Princess, why do you trust me?” I raise my head, our skin touches, our eyes glow a bright blue and Yanamarie pushes me back. Both of our hands shook,  
“Yana you’re my-”  
“Soulmate, how surprising,” A deep voice appears behind me, the smell of darkness makes me sick, my body wobbles and Yana catches me, “Yanamarie, this is what you do once Master decides you’re worthless? You become weak and fall in love?”   
She says nothing, but holds my arms tightly, I look at her, she is focused, but distracted, “Yashiro. You have no place here.”   
That name, “On the contrary Yanamarie, my place is here, beside Novus. Killing her finally, ending this cycle surely you remember this after 247 failed attempts, reset after reset.”  
“Stop it!” she shouts  
“This is my business, not yours anymore.” I opened my eyes, the man stood before me black liquid dripping from his eyes, I laid on the ground where Yana no longer was.  
“You’re the Unspoken for this generation, or this reset.” I say, standing up on my own  
He laughs, it chills my spine causing me to shake, “So you do understand resets. Or is it your new found power?”  
“I’m a Watcher of Time now, why wouldn’t I understand resets?”  
He sighs twirling around the dark room, “Because you never remember them, Novus.”  
Just him saying my name made me sick, this level of darkness was more than Yanamarie ever had, “Only Guardians-“  
“Yes, yes only Guardians of Time remember resets, and people like Yanamarie.” Yashiro says annoyed, but underneath he smirked, because he knew my interest had been caught,  
“Yana remembers?”  
“Oh yes, she remembers everything. Well she tries to, once centuries pass it t hard to remember it all, that means she remembers every time she killed you, or I did.”  
The brambles appeared, is this what she kept from me? Why is it so hard for her to get close to me? “Why are you telling me this?”  
“Because we can change this, if you come with me, I can finish you off and we don’t have to keep resetting. You save Yanamarie, and yourself,” He touches my cheek, darkness swirls around. The black liquid drips from his eyes onto my cheek, I grab his hand, pushing him away, he sighs, “you always push me away.” He strokes my neck and the cold shivers down my whole body.  
“Ple...Please, stop it.” His smirk turns into a smile as both of his hands grab my neck, the brambles come flooding up. I gasp for air attempting to find the right breath, tears pour down my cheek, the brambles attack my finger, tingles and pokes, static is all I feel and see. The world becomes dark as I choke on the last thing I saw, a rose coming up through the brambles.  
“A last parting gift, before I actually kill you.” darkness courses through my neck, the brambles disappear, I scream and light flashes. Yashiro is gone, my eyes glow bright blue, Yanamarie holds me tightly in her arms, rose petals escape my mouth, but they were liquid, my body was covered in them. My body was covered in blood, I heard Yana’s voice in the back of my head, but I saw Amelia in front of me. She’s smiling, she says something, but I can’t understand, Yana’s grip tightens. I can’t feel pain, I only feel calm, for once in my life I would’ve wanted Liam to be here, I was scared of what the darkness would do to me.  
Now Rave is running over, a bright red staff appears in his hands. He pauses, staring at me, looking at my eyes, then his eyes drift down, horror strikes his face, there was something wrong. Blood drips from Amelia’s hand as she summons crystals. I close my eyes, the noises around me sounded like an aura trying to talk, get my attention. It was like a dream, a painful, beautiful dream. Then reality hits, I gasp for air jolting up, pain wraps around my neck and travels down my spine. That's when I realized I was no longer in Yana’s arms. Instead in Opal’s bed, she worked quiet like a mouse, her ears perk when she notices me, “You’re awake! It’s been 2 days! How do you feel, does your neck still hurt?”  
“Wha..what happened.” Silence, her body lowers, sighs, and begins to check my vitals,  
“Amelia, works for the Unspoken Complex,” Rave’s voice rises as he walks into Opal’s room. A bandage covered his arm, “Yanamarie saved you. I distracted Amelia while Yana ran to Opal. You were already gone before she reached the infirmary.”  
“Where..is she?” It hurt to talk, my throat burned every word, every time I closed my eyes to stop the world from spinning the feeling persisted, I felt awful.  
“Amelia left with Yashiro, and Yanamarie is in the garden with Radial right now, don’t worry about her, worry about yourself,” Opal sticks a thermometer in my mouth, “Yashiro caused mild asphyxia, unconscious, but thankfully not death. He used the darkness to create a permanent mark on your neck where he strangled you, but otherwise your body is physically fine.” I touched my neck, the tears began to pour, this was the beginning of the end.


End file.
